A giant web made of electrified piano wire is suspended in place in the bare-bones room of a San Francisco art gallery. From the center of the wire hang five or so purple controllers. Using these, the web's builder can move the oddly shaped shiny robots that haltingly scurry along, riding on two of the wires, sending vibrations back to a pickup and one of several speakers. Oliver DiCicco, musician/designer/recording whiz, has built a new musical instrument, and today is the first time he's ever used it.
The Web Sight sound sculpture, showing 18 March to 5 April in San Francisco's Somar Gallery, is the latest in a series of public events staged by the increasingly prominent DiCicco. This one also features a retrospective of 13 of DiCicco's other instruments, which he's been building for seven years. Although the other instruments are far from conventional, and their strange shapes and polished execution make them sometimes look like science fiction props, they are easily recognizable as instruments. Web Sight is a wilder departure from convention.
"This whole web project was shape-inspired," says DiCicco, who is intently occupied with the nuts and bolts of making his vision actually work. "I love the way webs look."
The robots themselves are a hodge-podge of materials. Some feature swinging chains hitting a panel of shiny hard disks to create a rickety clang as they move themselves along. Other bugbots feature cascading bells that function as switches when they touch each other - sharply ringing with each jolt of electricity sent to the motor.
"I chose the hard disks for three reasons - they looked good, they sounded good, and I had them," says DiCicco. The Internet reference, he points out, is just a pun.
"One of the most striking things about DiCicco's work is that, although you wouldn't know it, it's earthy," says Bart Hopkin, whose book and CD set Gravikords, Whirlies and Pyrophones featured DiCiccio, among other experimental musical instrument builders. "Oliver likes working with recycled materials, but you wouldn't recognize those materials when you see them. He loves junkyards." Knowing the earthier beginnings of the polished and elegant instruments has given him a deeper appreciation of DiCicco's creations, says Hopkin.
Carlos Loarca, director of the Somar Gallery, is impressed by the look of DiCicco's web. "Part of the reason I'm interested in this piece is the clarity, the airy feeling that the web creates. You can see in front of it and in back of it.... There are plenty of building elements tied up in it."
But on Monday, the structure was challenging DiCicco. "I'm proceeding totally empirically. Because of a lack of space, I couldn't build this anywhere else. But that's how I work - as a concept moves to becoming reality it changes, but what comes into being is usually always more interesting."
There are unforeseen grounding problems and sounds that seem to come from nowhere. DiCicco shouts down from his ladder "I'm becoming an arachnophobe!"
