机械梦：升降之音
Mechanical Dreams: Sounds of Elevation
天目里美术馆2025-26年度公共艺术项目
BY ART MATTERS 2025-26 Public Art Project
天目里摆渡梯，场地限定声音装置
sound installation for OōEli Shuttle Elevator
Mechanical Dreams: Sounds of Elevation is part of the BY ART MATTERS 2025–2026 Public Art Project, site-specifically created by artist Zhuo Mengting for four sets of OōEli Shuttle Elevators. Each sonic event unfolds within the brief journey of elevator ascent and descent, synchronised with the opening and closing of doors and the sliding of cables. Through sonic reinterpretation, the everyday interplay between machinery and human life vividly emerges, quietly fading away as the elevator doors reopen.
Each elevator becomes a temporary theatre, activated only after its doors close. When the doors shut, the reality outside momentarily ceases, and the barely noticeable mechanical murmurs—the faint humming of motors, gentle sliding of door tracks, and subtle vibrations of cables—are amplified and translated into sonic interventions.
The artist uses strings and glass harp to mimic the friction of the cables and tracks, wind instruments and organ to recreate airflow within the elevator shaft, and percussion instruments to evoke the rhythmic impact of doors opening and closing. Field recordings of the elevator’s mechanical sounds are resampled and turned into a drone, resonating playfully with the cyclic movements of the elevators.
The elevator, a "non-place" we heavily rely upon in modern life, is designed purely as an efficient transport mechanism, with little attention given to the process of its movement itself. Space is compressed into a blank line: ascending and descending, opening and closing, entering and leaving—day after day, seldom generating memorable impressions. As sounds momentarily appear and vanish, do passengers realise that these seemingly empty moments actually embody an overlooked reality?
《机械梦：升降之音》是BY ART MATTERS 天目里美术馆2025–2026年度公共艺术项目的一部分，由艺术家卓梦婷为园区四组摆渡电梯特别创作。伴随着电梯开合、钢缆滑动，每段声音发生在轿厢升降的十几秒钟之间。机械与人的日常在此被声音演绎，并在开门后悄然隐去。
每部电梯都是一座临时剧场，但舞台只在门关闭之后才被激活。当门合上，日常世界被切断，空气中原本几乎无法察觉的机械声音——电机的细微嗡鸣、门轨轻柔的滑动、钢缆微弱的撞击——被放大和转写。
艺术家使用弦乐与玻璃琴模拟钢缆与轨道间的滑动摩擦，以管乐和风琴再现电梯井道中的气流，开关门时的撞击声则通过打击乐器交错重现。机械运转时的真实声音经过采样处理，形成的低鸣与电梯循环往返的动作相映成趣。
电梯，这个现代生活中人们高度依赖的“非空间”，设计之初被赋予纯粹高效的传输使命，其运动的过程却很难被感知。在这里，空间被极度压缩，成为一条空白的直线；上升与下降、开启与关闭、进入与离开——日复一日，鲜有形成任何特殊的记忆。当声音短暂地出现并消失，乘客是否会意识到：看似空白的瞬间，其实是一段被省略的真实。
Concept and composition by Zhuo Mengting
Erhu Performance by Ge Fanyin
概念/编曲：卓梦婷
二胡演奏：葛凡音
Commissioned by BY ART MATTERS
天目里美术馆委约创作
Mechanical Dreams: Sounds of Elevation
天目里美术馆2025-26年度公共艺术项目
BY ART MATTERS 2025-26 Public Art Project
天目里摆渡梯，场地限定声音装置
sound installation for OōEli Shuttle Elevator
Mechanical Dreams: Sounds of Elevation is part of the BY ART MATTERS 2025–2026 Public Art Project, site-specifically created by artist Zhuo Mengting for four sets of OōEli Shuttle Elevators. Each sonic event unfolds within the brief journey of elevator ascent and descent, synchronised with the opening and closing of doors and the sliding of cables. Through sonic reinterpretation, the everyday interplay between machinery and human life vividly emerges, quietly fading away as the elevator doors reopen.
Each elevator becomes a temporary theatre, activated only after its doors close. When the doors shut, the reality outside momentarily ceases, and the barely noticeable mechanical murmurs—the faint humming of motors, gentle sliding of door tracks, and subtle vibrations of cables—are amplified and translated into sonic interventions.
The artist uses strings and glass harp to mimic the friction of the cables and tracks, wind instruments and organ to recreate airflow within the elevator shaft, and percussion instruments to evoke the rhythmic impact of doors opening and closing. Field recordings of the elevator’s mechanical sounds are resampled and turned into a drone, resonating playfully with the cyclic movements of the elevators.
The elevator, a "non-place" we heavily rely upon in modern life, is designed purely as an efficient transport mechanism, with little attention given to the process of its movement itself. Space is compressed into a blank line: ascending and descending, opening and closing, entering and leaving—day after day, seldom generating memorable impressions. As sounds momentarily appear and vanish, do passengers realise that these seemingly empty moments actually embody an overlooked reality?
《机械梦：升降之音》是BY ART MATTERS 天目里美术馆2025–2026年度公共艺术项目的一部分，由艺术家卓梦婷为园区四组摆渡电梯特别创作。伴随着电梯开合、钢缆滑动，每段声音发生在轿厢升降的十几秒钟之间。机械与人的日常在此被声音演绎，并在开门后悄然隐去。
每部电梯都是一座临时剧场，但舞台只在门关闭之后才被激活。当门合上，日常世界被切断，空气中原本几乎无法察觉的机械声音——电机的细微嗡鸣、门轨轻柔的滑动、钢缆微弱的撞击——被放大和转写。
艺术家使用弦乐与玻璃琴模拟钢缆与轨道间的滑动摩擦，以管乐和风琴再现电梯井道中的气流，开关门时的撞击声则通过打击乐器交错重现。机械运转时的真实声音经过采样处理，形成的低鸣与电梯循环往返的动作相映成趣。
电梯，这个现代生活中人们高度依赖的“非空间”，设计之初被赋予纯粹高效的传输使命，其运动的过程却很难被感知。在这里，空间被极度压缩，成为一条空白的直线；上升与下降、开启与关闭、进入与离开——日复一日，鲜有形成任何特殊的记忆。当声音短暂地出现并消失，乘客是否会意识到：看似空白的瞬间，其实是一段被省略的真实。
Concept and composition by Zhuo Mengting
Erhu Performance by Ge Fanyin
概念/编曲：卓梦婷
二胡演奏：葛凡音
Commissioned by BY ART MATTERS
天目里美术馆委约创作
