Re-shaping t/dunes; Coastal Infrastructure as a sonic object

With ‘Reshaping t/dunes’, Minji aims to research acoustic communication between coastal infrastructure and the ecological environment when re-shaping dunes on the coast that have been eroded by environmental influences. Minji's research covers three main areas:

1. Research cases of environmental regeneration engineering, such as the Zand Motor (ZM), through collective fieldwork with a variety of participants.
2. Make an instrument that appropriates the Zand Motor’s mechanism that interacts with real-time moving sand dunes on coastal sides. The instrument is deeply related to Cymatics and is a medium that can reveal the acoustic/musica quality of coastal infrastructures as sonic objects.
3. Install them on the coasts both of the Netherlands and Korea to investigate communications between human-designed infrastructure and the coastal environment. These points are addressed through ecological thinking, philosophical speculation, and sound art practice in the context of acoustic ecology and object-oriented ontology.

The principal question that the research aims to answer is: How do coastal infrastructures work as sonic objects, how do these sonic objects reflect and transform the ecological conditions of the local environment, and how can a site-specific musical instrument be designed?

Her research sets out from the question how sound/music can be more directly related to ecology beyond simply making field recordings of environmental sounds, which are then consumed as an artistic/musical piece. Can sound/music affect ecology and positively contribute to a better ecological environment? Then, she discovered ZM and observed a possible connection between it and Cymatics' artistic experiments utilizing unique acoustic and terrain patterns. Therefore, Minji wanted to see what kind of sound/music can emerge when sands are moved by natural energy and if she can create an instrument that appropriates ZM’s mechanism that can be played in a site-specific manner.