This month, we’re delighted to be hosting Rani Jambak as part of the British Council’s Musicians in Residence programme. A sound artist and ecological activist, Rani is interested in our experiences of the environment, and the ancestry found within it. Using field recordings as her base, her work is explorative and experimental, telling stories about her home city of Medan.
Inspired by Kincia Aia, a traditional Minangkabau water wheel from the West Sumatra region of Indonesia, Rani has been designing a new sound installation, building sensors to place within a constructed water wheel. She’s hoping to make connections between her local environments and the waterways of Huddersfield, combining a hands-on approach to making music in her local nature with new, digital experiences of the West Yorkshire landscape.
Rani has been keeping a journal of her experiences of designing the water wheel. Below, you can read about her progress with testing out materials for the project, and her attempts to find a local natural site to present the installation at.
Read our interview with Rani here.
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What a journey with Kincia!
There were many plans that changed during the weeks for the Kincia Aia, a traditional Minangkabau water wheel I’ve been experimenting with for my new sound installation.
Since the first week of work on this project, I had decided I would build up my new Kincia with wood. After discussing it with my dad and husband, they recommended that I build it with iron – it’s cheaper and faster to set. We can also make use of a reusable iron to make it more environmentally friendly. I agreed with this idea and started to check where I could get the reusable iron from. I was planning to make a Kincia Aia with 2m diameter, but unfortunately, after checking with the iron shop, we discovered it would be impossible to build it in my parents house in Perbaungan, North Sumatra – the wheel would be so big, and so heavy to bring over from North Sumatra. As Kincia Aia is originally from Minangkabau, West Sumatra, I’ve decided to make the final presentation and performance in the river of West Sumatra.
I soon made a decision to move to West Sumatra for the project. After a twenty hour trip by bus – taking us to the morning of Thursday 21 April – we arrived in Bukit Tinggi. My father in law picked us up at the bus counter. At home, my husband told his father about the Kincia that I am working on now and we discussed it a lot – we started measuring, making sketches, and trying to find out what material is possible to spin the wheel with. We were planning to go to the iron store and the welder on Friday morning to see the material and calculate the price for the budget plan.
The next morning, suddenly my father in law brought us two slabs of light steel. He showed how the light steel is more convenient for building up the Kincia. It’s easier to connect parts by screw, and it’s light. But it couldn’t be used to make a circle – the wheel would have to be a square eight. The three of us went to so many different places to consult with friends; my father in law discussed with his friends how the wheel would work with light steel. One of them had a car workshop. He suggested using a rim of a car or motorbike. Then the spoke, also made of smaller light steel, could be screwed around the rim, so the axis then would connect to the panel of the pestle through the gear and chain.
After that we went to the steel store. Light steel was sold per stick for 6 meters in length for Rp. 120.000. The guy showed us how to bend the light steel so we can shape a square eight – it’s super easy, the light steel strong enough to screw each corner with the spoke. On Saturday night, my husband and I were talking with the craftsman, who is gonna build up the pestle. We had a discussion with him before about the plan, and that night he made up a 3D design of the Kincia Aia. The frame and pestle would be built with different types of plywood.
So far, I think the design of Kincia is almost done – and now we are ready to start building it up. Next week I will meet a friend who’s gonna help me to set the sensor.