Haruhi Kobayashi
she/her
Haruhi Koboyashi | Artist in Residence 2024 | Photo Credit: Maxwell-Thomas
Haruhi Kobayashi’s exploration of sound as a sculptural medium addresses the intersection of the socio-economic and environmental information we receive from sound, the impact of the environment that sounds inhabit, and methods of manipulating the content of sound through acoustics or electronics.
Her practice draws heavily from her background as a singer-songwriter with voices, including her own, as the material foundation of her creative process. She molds and weaves these vocal sounds through distortion, pitch shifting, and manipulating the acoustics of reverberant spaces and cavities. This transformative process often parallels the pixelation and censorship of images, illustrating how blurring sound can erase, change, and generate meaning.
She is fascinated by the malleability of the medium of sound and its ability to evoke diverse perceptions and sensations. Her sensory sculptures create resonant frequencies and accentuate specific tones. The physical elements of Haruhi’s work act as armatures, while the invisible sonic sculpture can continue to change form.
The Project
December 13th 2022, Empty Bottle, Chicago IL | Performance with (left to right) Maxwell-Thomas, Haruhi Kobayashi, Steven Hess, & Kiku Hibino | Photo by Gift
HCL is supporting Haruhi Kobayashi in the development of Sonic Playground, an evolving multi-channel sonic sculptural artwork. Haruhi’s explorations will revolve around the pursuit of acoustically intricate sonic sculptural forms, enriched by collaboration and cultural diversity. Through extensive experimentation, she will probe the acoustic properties of spaces to find balance between content and environment.
Chicago Film Archive Media Mixer at Constellation, Chicago IL, June 22, 2023 | Presented in partnership with Zachary Hutchinson | Photo by CFA
This durational piece features a single voice per sound source. These voices gradually pitch shift to different arrangements that can be tonal or atonal, wide spread or clustered. By removing the body from the voice, Sonic Playground allows the listener to move through space to connect with each voice individually and as part of an ensemble. Through incorporating voices that embody various cultures and backgrounds, Haruhi aims to accentuate the personal memories and connotations one is feeling from the content.
Haruhi will combine disparate material planes, such as glass, foam and concrete with ceramic and cloth cavities built for sounds to resonate within. The use of parabolic or hyper-directional speakers, in combination with these sculptural objects, will intentionally shape sonic forms and control the collision points of sound. Integrating subwoofers will offer a physicality to the sound and experience of the work, extending the reach of Sonic Playground beyond the realm of hearing.
About the Artist
Haruhi Kobayashi is a Chicago-based sound artist. Originally from Tokyo, Haruhi began her career as a Japanese-pop singer-songwriter, releasing solo albums and composing for TV and film. Throughout her formative years in the Japanese pop industry, she became interested in the underlying social and emotional connotations and conditions of her own voice and the inextricable ties between one’s voice and their identity. She started to manipulate her voice into unidentifiable sounds, liberating it from its “human” constraints. Her recent body of work gives sound a sense of shape, texture and agency through sensory sculptures, and explores the physical human interaction and intimacy between the listener and the sound source. She has received an AA in Music Production from the Los Angeles College of Music and a BFA in Fine Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
For more information, visit haruhikobayashi.com
