Fathom: Surfaces, Symmetries, Arrivals and Departures

Fathom is a sound installation by Jane Grant and John Matthias that was commissioned by the River Tamar Project and premiered at the Factory Cooperage Building in Royal William Yard, Plymouth, UK in September 2013. Visitors entering the installation were able to hear live and edited sound recorded underwater in Plymouth Sound, a large estuarine body of water from which the Plym, Tamar, and Hamaoze Rivers flow into the sea. They were also able to climb out of the underwater sonic environment, above the Fathom, to hear live acoustic sound relayed by microphones above the water. In this paper we will explore some of the poetics of the work, particularly regarding the relationship of the surface to the planet and the moon, the relationship of a surface to a body of water, what it is to break through that surface, and how waves of sound reflect and cancel. We will also consider the idea of the wave and the concept of phase and how the manipulation of these enabled the work to be constructed.