A giant speaker with motion sensors rests at the end of a rotating arm.  It tracks your movements and responds by emitting a distorted ripping sound.  If you try to move out of the direct path of the speaker, it continually moves to face you. This is a piece called “Spatial Sounds," an interactive installation by artists Marnix De Nijs and Edwin van der Heide, Part of the exhibit “Physical Conditions” at the Wood Street Galleries. 

In the past ten years, video and installation art have become a justifiable genre in art.  The use of computers, sensors, projectors, and other A/V equipment has enabled artists to approach sculpture in a completely new and exciting way.  

See a video of “Spatial Sounds” (warning: turn your volume down).

This kind of technologically advanced sculpture is often on display in exclusive art galleries and Museums such as the Guggenheim, but you can see it on your lunch break.  

Located above the Wood Street T station in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh, the Wood Street Galleries (est. 1992) are a world class venue for cutting edge contemporary art.  The galleries are owned and operated by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.  It is easy enough to walk past since the entrance is a small elevator opposite the lobby of the T Station, but the gallery spaces are vast and admission is free.  

The current show “Physical Conditions” include work by the following artists: Henrik Menne, Marnix de Nijs, Donato Piccolo and Edwin van der Heide. 

Their pieces are meant to investigate the physicality of sensory experience.  

The hum of machinery welcomes you as you walk in to the gallery.  Several pieces by Henrik Menne dutifully perform their assigned tasks of dripping, blowing or spraying wax.  The subsequent buildup continually grows nearby.  

Like a combination of calculation and chance, each piece is both mechanical  and organic, rigorously dripping liquid wax to create a gradual accumulation of matter.  This continuous process enables the viewer to see the evolution of the sculpture while it is on display.  The other works on display also engage some level of interaction.  

The current show runs through Sept. 25. Gallery Hours are 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.  You can see a live video feed of the gallery from a link on their website.