Specification

Installation / Sound
Zigong salt, Rochelle salt, Zigong salt brine, Distilled water, borosilicate jars, petri dishes, tape cassette machine with field recording.

Description

Crystallization and field recording are parallel acts. The crystal and the tape both seem to represent a moment fixed in time, yet both are slowly changing, enduring only in appearance within human timescales.

Beneath the abandoned salt derricks of Zigong the ‘Salt capital’ of China, I recorded the low-frequency and electromagnetic environment using a geophone and a self-built VLF receiver; sensors that reach below and beyond human hearing. One derrick inside a woodland filtered the city’s din, letting through something haunting: crackles, whines, and whispers, as the dead industry continued to murmur underground.

Touched by this sense of hauntology, I transferred the recording to cassette, an echo of my memories of making my first field recordings on tape in the woods as a child. I grew salt crystals from Zigong’s underground brine using the La Rochelle, France, sea-salt method I had learned in my research into crystal transducers.

Exhibition

This work was produced as part of the Salt of Life artist residency program hosted by Diagonal and A36 Salt Art Space, in the city of Zigong, Sichuan, China, in June 2026.

Photo Credits: 豆腐拍摄, Vivi拍摄, Chris拍摄 (2026)

Archive Image: Unknown Photographer. Ziliujing derrick, overhead crane, mechanically powered brine-lifting station (1938).