A Single Conversation across the table with a wise person is worth a Month's Study of Books!

I recorded a conversation I had with my friend Charlotte. This time I used an echo effect to give a feel of how the conversations are going to be in the room for my final project. I want to know if you were able to tell what we are saying.

The language and the truth of the message are lost in a different kind of flood.

In Susan Hiller's work, Witness (2000), you can put your ear to one of the hundreds of tiny speakers that hang suspended from glittering wires. Most of them are dry reports of UFO sightings in different languages, as if from a file, but when, suddenly, you hear a voice, which is that of a person describing their own experience of a sighting, that's a little like love. "Believe me" is the hidden message in their voice. 
The exhibition is currently open at the Tate Modern, I will go and check it out, it looks amazing.

This is very close to what I have in mind for my final project. The way it has been installed is amazing and required a lot of skills and materials which I don't have so I guess I'll have to inspire  myself from her with cheaper materials. 

Promises are like Babies: Easy to Make, Hard to Deliver.

We make promises all the time, some of us respect them more than others but we all break or have broken promises in the past because we are not perfect. Sometimes we can make promises that you know that we will not have to keep or make what sounds like a promise by adding a qualifier (e.g. 'could') or making the statement vague. It’s call making an empty promise. 

It makes me think of Do-Ho Suh’s work Screen, installation at the Lehmann Maupin, New York. It is a screen made out of different colored men and women, who look like a wall when you first see it but once you come closer, you distinguish the little army of people. This wall is not at all opaque, looks more like a solid piece of fabric than an actually wall as we can see the rest of the room through it. An empty promise is just like that wall, gives the illusion that it is real but when you come closer you realize there is no intension of keeping it, it was just to impress and there wasn’t anything real there. One might question if an empty promise isn’t simply a disguised lie, or just a lack of respect for the other person.

Some of his other work.

An empty promise is one sided and means that the other person is left with a particular expectation in their head, so they will ultimately disappointed. Therefore an empty promise is a promise that is broken from the start.

Sounds good to me!

For my project I am thinking of working with sound, possibly echoing sound, and an architectural space. John Wynne’s untitled installation for 300 speakers, player piano and vacuum cleaner was monumental, minimal and immersive. It was exhibited last summer at the Gallery. When you entered the room you could hear three different kind of sounds: the ambient sound of the space in which it is installed, the notes played by the piano, and a computer-controlled s Saatchi oundtrack consisting of synthetic sounds and gently manipulated notes from the piano itself. John Wynne’s work on unwanted speakers makes me think of the thousand flying lanterns featured in the new Disney movie Tangled.

In the untitled installation, Wynne elevated several speakers from the other speakers, the speaker society one might call it, and when you come into this room, we can’t help but wonder why. Is it because it is superior to the others? Is it worshipped? Just like the lifted speakers, promises are important and should be lifted and worshipped too. 

Conversation is an Exercise of the Mind

I recorded a discussion with my friends, Marianne and Jenny, talking about promises in general. The recording was a bit long and we found ourselves going deep into the significance of a promise involving lies, specificity and much more. Here a brief part of our discussion.

The Minimal Essence of Sony’s ‘Monolithic Design’

Sony’s design team has invited London-based designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby to create an original and experiential installation at this year’s Salone in Milan. 

I came across an article in Frame magazine about an exhibition in Milan by Sony's design. Their installation space was transformed into an anechoic chamber – a space with very low ambient noise – constructed from sound absorbing cones. As I am looking into sound at the moment, I thought it was very interesting and it gave you a feel of what it could be like inside that chamber. Also, the architecture of the room and the technology are breathtaking.

Have you ever broken a promise? And if so why?

"Due to my own devastating insecurities and my overwhelming daddy issues..." said by Ben.


"Because of time, distance and space, they disenable me..." said by Yutong.


"When I was really young the iron was on the table and it was really hot and my mum and my grandmother told me not to touch it, so I said okay and then when they left for like a second I of course touched it and it HURT! And then they put some burn spray on my hand which really stung. Play with fire (or irons) and you get hurt." said by Marianne. 


"I broke a promise. A promise to myself. I promised myself I won't think about that bastard again. But I get so angry over him whenever I remember what he did" said by Kai.


"I promised him that I won't leave him unless I found someone better that him. But I left him before I found that someone" said by Kai.


Below, you will find a conversation I had with my friend Lucy:

• Camille 

  • have u ever broken a promise? if so why?
• Lucy

  • yeah i think so, but never a big promise i've told people gossip when i know its not really going to hurt anyone
  • but that is when i was younger
  • otherwise noone asks me to keep promises now
• Camille

  • lol

• Camille

  • ok thank you
  • thats helpful
• Lucy

  • but i guess there are sort of unspoken promises that you automatically keep
  • that sounds deep haha

• Lucy

  • but you know like if you're married its a promise and if you cheat or divorce or whatever its broken
• Camille

  • yh
• Lucy 

  • but im not married
• Camille 

  • that was one of my examples at first
  • looool
• Lucy

  • haha
  • and i dont really know if you could call it a promise but like a promise to your family that you wont be a dick or disown them or go to prison or something but that doesnt really fit

"Depends what kind of promises. I like to think that is part of my traits as a friend is that if i have promised to do something i will move hell or high water to do so, unless its something stupid like doing the washing up. Its quite a big deal for me because i can't deal with flaky people that promise the world and commit to everything, I'd rather wait to the last minute and say yes than say yes yes yes yes yes no" said by Hari.

The Darkness Is Limitless

I have come to realise that when someone is lying to you, you can feel it. By the way they talk, where they look or simply because they fidget. If one has broken a promise, you have that feeling but you don't know for sure. Doubts. There's a sense of mystery.

I remembered about an exhibition at the Tate Modern my friend went to last year. It was a room where you couldn't see anything because it was pitch black by Miroslaw Balka. She found the overall experience very interesting as she didn't know where was what and who was next to her. 

The darkness make a room feel bigger. Doubts are like the darkness: you don't know the limits.
Just like a promise, this exhibition required to trust the artist. 

I want to live my life, not record it!

In this recording, I am talking to my friend about promises in general. The conversation is in french so I did my best to translate it into english.

Un Monde Renversant

Whenever someone breaks a promise, one would think that their world is turned upside down. Especially if the promise was of a large significance. It remainded me of the work of Anurag Nema and you can see more of his work here.