I am currently doing a foundation in Art & Design and I created this blog to present my final project of the year. I am working on Broken Promises and I wanted to share with you my research, inspiration and my making/design. Comments and opinions are crucial to my project so please share. Thank you and enjoy.
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.
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.