At the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan, French sound artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot is presenting “Clinamen,” a large-scale installation featuring hundreds of ceramic bowls gently bobbing and striking each other in three circular pools. The work, which first appeared in Paris in summer 2023, invites visitors to reconsider the traditional role of the composer by substituting human control with a self-governing sound system.
Each pool, measuring approximately 40 feet in diameter and holding about 10,000 gallons of water, contains roughly 250 glazed ceramic bowls sourced from retail shops including Maison de la Porcelaine, Asa, and IKEA. The bowls, varying in size but sharing a similar hemispherical form and muted white glaze, float freely atop circulating water jets that propel them in predictable yet subtle orbits, causing their rims to collide and produce a delicate array of percussive tones.
As visitors enter the Drill Hall—where the pools are recessed into an elevated plywood platform—they encounter a series of quiet metallic tinkles and occasional kalimba-like sounds. The installation’s gradual reveal and the modest volume of sound encourage a slow, attentive listening experience. From a vantage point amid the three pools, observers can discern a complex soundscape characterized by overlapping echoes, gentle clashes, and intermittent melodic fragments reminiscent of gamelan music. These emergent harmonies, however, are not orchestrated by a composer but arise from the physics and programmed flow of the system.
Boursier-Mougenot, who began his career composing for French theatre and later turned to acoustic installations, explained that “Clinamen” aims to shift the composer’s role from orchestrator to listener. Drawing on the Latin term for “swerve,” the piece reflects the ancient philosophy of random atomic movement, suggesting that free will and unpredictability underlie existence. The bowls’ movements and sounds, which appear both orderly and spontaneous, embody this interplay between determinism and chance.
The installation’s design evokes celestial mechanics: water jets create dual concentric currents guiding the bowls’ trajectories much like planetary orbits. At the Armory, a large muslin chandelier suspended above the pools casts a diffuse light over the scene, amplifying the sense of a cosmic tableau. This ambience contrasts with the more social atmosphere observed during the work’s previous presentation in Paris, where visitors engaged more actively with the installation.
“Clinamen” has evolved over three decades from an intimate experiment in a small kiddie pool to a monumental, immersive environment touring internationally in locations such as Brazil, Australia, South Korea, and Iceland. Unlike earlier works by Boursier-Mougenot featuring living performers—such as zebra finches activating guitars—this piece emphasizes the abstraction of agency, representing a purely system-driven sonic ecology.
The Armory presentation runs continuously during open hours without designated showtimes, accommodating visitors with a wide range of hearing abilities, though the piece is inherently more experiential for those able to perceive its subtle acoustic details. As technology increasingly mediates artistic creation and perception, “Clinamen” situates itself within that evolving dialogue, paralleling the generative work of contemporaries like Brian Eno and Rebecca Horn.
In inviting audiences to relinquish control and immerse themselves in an authorless sound world, Boursier-Mougenot’s “Clinamen” challenges assumptions about musical composition, human intention, and the nature of pattern and randomness in art and life.