NAISA Sound Byte 24 - Listening to Water with Lina Choi
Waterscape sound sculpture and discussion with Montréal-based artist Lina Choi
“Waterscape” is a sound sculpture by Lina Choi that produces water-like sounds through small motor-driven devices. Each element creates subtle drops and flows, forming an evolving, immersive sound environment. Inspired by the movement of water, the work reinterprets these rhythms through mechanical systems, blurring the line between natural and artificial. The surrounding sounds invite listeners to slow down and experience a shifting sonic landscape.
“Waterscape” is on exhibit at the NAISA North Media Arts Centre in South River, Ontario from June to September, 2026. On June 20, 2026 New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) hosted an artist talk and conversation with Lina Choi called “Listening to Water.” In the talk she explains her work with water in her sound installations and performances. Here is a video to experience the “Waterscape” sound sculpture as well as to follow the artist talk and discussion with Lina Choi.
Transcript of Artist Talk Discussion
Darren Copeland (event host):
You’ve done mostly performances, but also installations, but your background is in visual art, and I was wondering, maybe a place to begin would be to explain how you got to using water sounds and what drew you to that.
Lina Choi (artist/guest speaker):
Yeah, I was studying in London, England. I think in Canada I have to say which London because people ask me if it is in Ontario (laughter).
And then I started my master’s degree and I wanted to do something new that you know I had never done before. So I found this sound studio there and then - oh sound - sounds interesting you know. I took some field recording workshops and then I bought this little handy recorder and I asked myself like what do I want to record? Oh water, you know, I want to record water and then I started being interested in water.
You know, at first it was just simply curiosity of the sound of water. It was attractive. And then as I continued researching I discovered many things to talk about with water. But especially I’m more into our connection to water. Like our origins, embodiment and feminist perspectives to water. So now I’m more interested in these relationships between water, human, non-human, human body, mother’s water and earth water. I think water allows me to think about how everything is interconnected. So yeah, that’s what I started.
Darren Copeland:
What were some of the challenges with moving from visual art practice to sound that you found? How did the idea of time factor in your artwork before considering that as a parameter?
Lina Choi:
Well, in the beginning, I was, you know, struggling with how to use everything. I didn’t even know how to use amplifier. I didn’t know how to use speakers and anything. So, I went to the sound studio and asked a lot. But also before I use, you know, I was already using some like mechanical stuff for my sculpture or installations and video stuff as well. So it wasn’t that difficult to transition, wasn’t super difficult I think.
Darren Copeland:
Yeah, maybe you can tell us about that audio. It is from a performance?
Lina Choi:
Yeah. I did a residency at Daímon in Gatineau, Québec. And then I was able to observe the rivers in the Gatineau-Ottawa region. And from late winter to early spring.
So, you know, I saw frozen lake to really calm creek, but also crazy melting ice in the river or something like that. So I created this performance to show this seasonal transition from frozen winter ice to the gentle spring and then energetic summer water because I came back. I returned in the summer to see the summer water as well.
Darren Copeland:
But before we play it. I was thinking, because you’re working with aquariums and this kind of controlled environment, how did you convey the spring rush and things like that using those kinds of sources?
Lina Choi:
Well, I try to, I think I love using these glass bowls or aquariums because you can see what I’m doing and it looks visually beautiful as well, but also it makes really gentle sound. And if you can make different sounds with the bowl, you can make water sounds obviously, but you can also hit the bowl or you can, if you drop a little bit of water on the edge of the bowl, it also makes a little sound. And then I found it very gentle and nice. But yeah, it depends on like what I use, like the material of the bowl.
Darren Copeland:
So when we play this audio file, do we imagine you playing with bowls and touching them and touching the water in different ways?
Lina Choi:
Yeah. And I use like lots of tools as well. And this performance I use like ice in the beginning.
Darren Copeland:
With ice as well. Okay. Okay.
Lina Choi:
But also I use some, you know, I need some like kind of tone, like ambience. So I use Kalimba as well. So it’s very simple.
I just use hydrophone and like bowl or water and some tools to make sound, move the sound, move the water and then some tone with Kalimba. And sometimes I use this thing, but not so much. Yeah.
I will create the sound in real life, but also I use the recorded sound on the cassette player.
Darren Copeland:
So that was in a live performance. So audience was watching you do that. Or was it for just for radio and you recorded it?
Lina Choi:
No, there was an audience. And at the same time, it was broadcast on the radio.
Darren Copeland:
Okay. I see. Okay.
Play Audio of Lina Choi’s performance “Where the River Moves” from Radio-Hull Festival at Daímon in Gatineau, Québec
Darren Copeland:
It was very evocative. And I was wondering if anyone here in the audience here wants to comment on what they saw or imagined in their minds. Usually radio has the best pictures.
Mary McDonald (audience member):
I could definitely hear the different moods and movements through the piece, which was beautiful. And there were different moments where suddenly, my curiosity was peaked and I thought, oh, what’s that moment now? And trying to imagine, what you were doing and how you were performing that, but also what you were evoking in terms of the natural environment? And it was really beautiful when it sounded like a very strong stream, like the spring stream, was that a recorded sound?
Lina Choi:
Yes.
Mary McDonald: Okay. Yeah. So I was thinking you couldn’t possibly make it.
Lina Choi:
Yeah, sometimes I need, yeah.
Mary McDonald:
Yeah. Yeah. But it was, it was lovely the way it was interwoven. It was very nice.
Darren Copeland:
It seemed to me to, like the use of the recorded sound was very tastefully done. It kept the focus on this being a performance and that this was referencing this other event that happened elsewhere.
Lina Choi:
I mean, it wasn’t the small creek that I found and there were dogs and it was so beautiful. And, you know, everyone, everything else was frozen. Like, oh my, I was a little bit frustrated, like, oh my God, there’s no sound.
Mary McDonald:
How was the residency? Were you in Gatineau, Quebec the whole time? Like you stayed there for that?
Lina Choi:
Yeah, I was, yeah, I was staying there for a month in the winter and another month in the summer.
So basically, I mean, I didn’t see all the seasons, but I saw, because it was the end of February, maybe. So, you know, it was frozen in the beginning, but later it was melting. The ice was melting and it made really, really interesting sounds there.
Mary McDonald:
And then the residency was to produce this performance at the end.
Lina Choi:
Yeah, there was in the summer. So, I mean, before the residency, I felt like, oh, winter, there’s nothing I can do. I thought about that. But actually, no, winter is amazing. The sound of water is really, really nice.
Darren Copeland:
I was wondering if you could talk about the difference of using hydrophones in the controlled way, like in installation or performance versus out in the field and how you approach those two different situations.
Lina Choi:
These motorized devices make the water move. You know, the smaller, these water wheels, they make more like a gentle, like dripping sound and then the tube device on the back that continuously turns, rotates and creates a rain-like sound. And then the hydrophones, they amplify the underwater vibration.
So, I found the sound more, like deeper, richer and then makes the sound more unique, I found, and very different. It’s really different than we hear from the surface, the water. So, yeah, I wanted to make a musical instrument that made sound of water.
That was my goal. You know, instead of playing a recorded sound, I wanted to build something that plays the water in real time. And then I was curious about our response to sound of water produced by mechanical elements but not naturally produced.
And do we still feel the same, like feeling relaxed or, you know, as same as we feel in the river or in the sea or near the water? And then I showed this installation in Montreal first, and then in Gatineau, and then again here, South River. And at the opening of the Montreal exhibition, I did the performance with this installation.
So, I would say, you know, I played this instrument that I made. So, yeah, so we can go back to the question that Darren asked. I don’t know, but I love using hydrophones because like I just explained, it really makes the sound different.
You can hear the sound from near the shore or wherever, more from the surface, the waves and stuff. But if you put the hydrophone and listen to the sound, it’s completely different and really quiet, even though you go to where the big rapids and big current is completely different. And so I quite enjoy using hydrophones.
And I thought that this also, this installation, you can hear this dripping or like, you know, rain sounds from outside, for sure. But also, you can also hear what’s happening in the water as well. So that’s why I used hydrophones for the installation.
Darren Copeland:
Janet (online audience member) had a question. I’d like to ask about the perception or use of echoes or delay, that there is an aspect of multilayered temporalities. Can you speak a little bit about the relationships of different time, time spans, your relation with time in this work?
So I guess playing off of time. I guess when we use delay, we kind of, there’s a kind of implication of time being askewed, you know, changed and manipulated in some way.
Lina Choi:
Using the effect, if you want to talk about, I think that gives more, gives a different mood, I suppose, and then more depth, and then it makes it more dreamy. I mean, I always want to make it more ambient and, you know, not unrealistic.
So, yeah, because it’s not, you can listen to water, you know, you can go to river, you can go to sea, but like, it’s an artistic way. So, yes, I love using some delay, but, also I don’t want to use a lot because I don’t want to change this completely, like, two different sounds.
Darren Copeland:
It’s like straddling a balance then between the actual sound, respecting that versus altering reality a bit, you know, giving it artistic.
Lina Choi::
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think that’s why I use also like these tones, you know, like these ambient sound that I make with the Kalimba or something. So make that, you know, that ambient mood as well. I think that helps a little bit more like relaxing with water.
Darren Copeland:
With the installation we have here, we kind of approached it a bit of keeping the sound somewhat realistic to what it is with a little bit of treatment of delay and reverb. Is, is that how you approach it with other presentations of your work in installations or, or was it more like your performance which seemed to be more having more abstracted treatments of the sounds?
Lina Choi:
Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. Yeah, I use that for everything. I use the effects for, I slightly modify the sound a little bit for performance and installation both.
So we can maybe watch this waterscape performance. I played with this into installation.
Play Video of Lina Choi performing Waterscape at Produit Rein in Montréal, Québec in June 2024
Darren Copeland:
So, what were you breathing? You were kind of like breathing into something there at the end?
Lina Choi:
Yes
Darren Copeland:
Okay, it was a microphone there.
Lina Choi:
Yes, I always use microphone to have some breathing sound.
Mary McDonald (audience member):
Can I ask about the difference for you between performance and installation?
Lina Choi:
Performance is like, I can like create something, create sound of water that I can play with. But installation also that, but something different, I feel I can maybe show more visual, visualization there, and I can put more stories into it.
I think that I just found a little bit performance has a little bit of limitation to show everything. So, yeah, so when I have a chance, I always try to make installation to show other stories with water.
Nadene Thériault-Copeland (audience member):
We had a book that we created at NAISA a long time ago, and we asked some questions about what the artists involved thought the difference was between performance and installation. And Bentley Jarvis had an incredible answer. And I still remember it to this day.
And he said, when you have a performance, it’s very limited in the scope, like you, you can only do something for a specified amount of time, that people show up for that amount of time, it relies on their attention span to be involved and inclusive in that period of time.
Whereas installation, it’s more temporal, you can live with it for a while, you can let it breathe over time. And you can sit with it, or you can go away and come back another day and get maybe a different experience. So it allows it allows the composer, the artist to maybe play a little bit more with perception and play a little bit more with how the audience might interact with what they’re looking at. And I’m wondering what your thoughts on that is?
And also, a secondary question is, what is your fascination with water as opposed to other mediums?
Lina Choi:
So I totally agree. And this interaction part is completely different. I mean, of course, you know, listening to the performance is interaction.
But, you know, like physically, if you want the visitors to interact with my work, like, physically, that installation is the best way. I mean, also, this work, it can be part interactive, because you can make sound with it. And, you know, you can do something with installation. And what was the second question again? Sorry.
Nadene Thériault-Copeland:
What is your fascination with water as opposed to other mediums? Because I’ve heard now two or three different pieces, like also the ice follies, you did a piece on water. And I’m wondering whether that’s why that is, is it an obsession with you? Or is it? Is there a reason for it being kind of what you’re using to convey your artistic ideas?
Lina Choi:
I think, you know, like before, I usually got inspiration from where I was, like residencies, for example, what river what waterway and stuff like that. And then depends on that I made like piece like this performances, like this one at Diamond, because I saw these transitions. So I made that something like that.
But then now, so I just want to mention a bit of like my interest at the moment, because that made my work a little bit different than the works that you have been seeing now. So I am like, I’m very interested in this relationship between mother’s water and the natural water. So I’m more like trying to talk about this, our prenatal experience in our mother’s womb.
That’s what I’m at now. I mean, because it started with all this water, and the moment of water, and this lead me now… so at my current, my recent project is about this concept. So I’ve been like trying to recreate this sound we may have heard in inside of our, mom’s body, mom’s uterus.
We never know, we don’t remember, but you know, I made something like that. And I’m very interested in it, like warm, protected, and very comforting, muffled, that kind of sonic environment. So new performance with this concept that I participated in a residency in Spain last year. And then I explore lots of waterways in different cities there. And I made a piece called Amniotic River. And I show that in the Euphonic festival there and the residency.
And then I tried to create this kind of sensation of being in body using terra-cotta pot instead of glass, glass balls, and some other object. And then, and then I needed something more to show my concept visually. So last summer I presented this installation at Écart in Rouyn-Noranda in Quebec.
The exhibition was called “We Keep Slowing in Watery Body.” So I built this big dome structure, and that represented a uterus, I suppose. And then people could enter there and lie down and listen to the sound, because there are small speakers attached to the dome.
And that sound is dripping water or breathing or heart beat, something like that. And then you feel like you’re in the womb, I hope. And then when the people went out from the womb, which means you’re being born, right?
And then they are surrounded by these sounds of the sea that I recorded in Spain. So then I wanted to talk about more like we come from a watery body. We’re made mostly of water as well.
And we continue to live within this earthy womb, practically, I would say. In a way, this Planet itself can be imagined as a giant womb, and we still live there. So yeah, I wanted people to think more like we can remember that our first experience of water was not in the river, not in the lake or ocean, but within our mom’s body.
And from that first watery environment to the waters of the Earth, we remain connected through continuously flowing in the water. So yes, so now I’m more into this womb making and the sounds of the womb that we felt very comfortable. That’s why we were still feeling very relaxed with water.
That’s the connection I think I am looking for. Does that make sense?
Mary McDonald:
Yeah, it’s beautiful.
Nadene Thériault-Copeland:
Yeah, when I met you, you were seven months pregnant. And I was thinking today, I wondered if that was your connection currently, because you had that very visceral thing going on in your own body.
Lina Choi:
Yeah, I guess so. But I mean, it started before, because I read a book, I mean, I got inspired by another artist, I was doing a residence and I met that artist and then, you know, the artist was talking about this thing. And then I started being very interested in this theory and, you know, philosophy and stuff like that.
There is a book called “Bodies of Water: from by Astrida Neimanis. So I started reading this book and then I was like, you know, oh, wow, like you can interpret water as like this, you know, it was like big shock. And also, like you said, as a woman, you know, I can have that amniotic fluid in my body. I don’t know, it was all connected, I guess. And then, yes, I’m pregnant. And then it makes me more think about that.
More into it and I am experiencing it again. So, yeah, it is very special now.
Play Video of the installation “Nous Continuons à couler dans un corps aqueux” from Écart in Rouyn-Noranda from 2025
Lina Choi:
So, yeah, I needed something, something visual, like something more physical to experience that concept, the work. I can’t really deliver with the performance in that.
For that work, I used more soft materials as well, fabric I never used before. And those long pillows, they represent an umbilical cord, so you can like hug, you know, cuddle with the cushion. So, yeah, inside of the dome, there was more of a very muffled sound inside of the dome. And then outside there is more like natural sound. Oh, and in this work, I’m gonna develop to more of an ambisonic format. So, it’s more, you know, more immersed and more, yeah, that’s what I’m planning.
Mary McDonald:
How are you going to do that?
Lina Choi:
I need help, you know, I’m doing a residency with an Arts Centre in Montreal. They’re very good at all those things. We’re gonna make something together. I have no idea yet.
Mary McDonald:
Which Arts Centre did you say you’re going to work with to find out how to do that?
Lina Choi:
It’s called ASOD(??) in Montreal.
Mary McDonald:
Did you make the dome and the materials yourself?
Lina Choi:
I made the dome, but I mean, I just bought the dome there. You can buy this structure where I made this, you know, or the fabric part. So, yeah, I learned how to use sewing machines. Well, yeah, it was fun.
Mary McDonald:
That was my next question. Did you do all the sewing and stuff?
Lina Choi:
Yeah, I did, I did. And it was actually, it took a long time to find the fabric as well. And, you know, I needed something very soft and elastic. Inside of the dome there are this plastic structure. So I wanted to hide that. So I made a little sleeves everywhere.
And then the speakers also, you know, because I installed the little speakers on the dome, but the dome itself is very light, actually. I couldn’t really use big, good speakers. I have to use three-inch speakers, which don’t really have a good quality of sound, which is, I really want to develop.
Yeah, I want to develop the whole thing, like with better sound system and then more sturdy and everything.
Mary McDonald:
Oh, beautiful.
Lina Choi:
So it’s quite different, isn’t it? With the soundscape that is presented over there right now. And what I’m doing right now. Yeah, because I was more curious about this, you know, this water itself and sound itself, how to move the water, how to make the sound of water. But now it’s more like more, you know, deeper way to talk about water, I think.
Mary McDonald:
Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.
Lina Choi:
So, yeah, that’s why like I can keep working with water, you know, I don’t know, many, many, many years, because there are always something, new that I want to talk about with water.
So, yeah, it’s not just water. There is relationship, there is people, there’s body, there’s feminism, there’s everything.
Nadene Thériault-Copeland:
There’s ecology too. I mean, there’s a lot of talk around water pollution and climate change and how that’s affecting.
Lina Choi:
Yes, exactly. Ecosystem. And also, there’s like lots of different cultures about that as well.
Also, the pollution we talk about, like I learned a lot in Gatineau or so, like the First Nations, the indigenous people don’t have access to water, something like that. There really were lots of, lots of, lots of things to talk about. And when I had a workshop with people, I asked them like, do you have any like experience with water?
And it was all different, you know, someone talk about disaster in, you know, rainstorm or whatever it is, and, whatever experience they have, like complete different stories about water. It’s really interesting.
Play video of Waterscape Installation at NAISA North Media Arts Centre in South River, Ontario from June, 2026
Lina Choi is a Montreal-based artist working with sound, installation, and performance. Her practice explores the relationship between water, sound, and the body through immersive and meditative environments. Drawing from field recordings and experimental sound processes, she creates works that evoke fluidity, memory, and sensory experience. To learn more about her work, visit her website.
The topic of water has appeared in previous editions of NAISA Sound Bytes on Substack. Check out a conversation with Eric Powell on “Voice of the Water” and with Barry Truax on his piece What the Waters Told Me.
NAISA Sound Bytes are published on Substack by New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA), which is a sound-based media arts organization in South River, Ontario, Canada. NAISA presents sound sculptures, transmission art, electroacoustic music, and videomusic through performances, exhibitions, broadcasts, and 3 annual festivals: Sound Travels, Deep Wireless, and SOUNDplay. Operating since 2001, NAISA is partially funded by Ontario Arts Council, The Canada Council for the Arts, and The Department of Canadian Heritage.