Seungjun Kang

"The Sound of Sangwonsa and Emille: A warning from nature"

Section MS11, Mhamad Safa

Keywords: soundscapes, ecology, ritual, sculpture

This project centres on the urgent sound of warning bells, translated into spectrograms and re-materialised as physical objects. Historically, Korean bells such as the Sangwonsa Bell and the Emille Bell functioned as tools for signalling danger, marking time, and gathering collective attention. Their sounds carried urgency and responsibility, operating as early warning systems within society.

In this project, these bell sounds are transformed into spectrograms and interpreted as visual structures. Rather than representing sound as a continuous, descriptive surface, the work focuses on moments of intensity within the spectrogram—spikes where resonance is most pronounced. These moments are extracted and translated into spatial bands, forming objects that visualise urgency in relation to the contemporary climate crisis. By converting sound into physical form, the project reframes the bell not as a historical artefact but as a contemporary object through which questions of warning, attention, and environmental urgency can be reconsidered.