SPACES BUILDINGS MAKE

We’ve just come back after the Easter break. Listening Post (Smoking Room) continues to attract comment. It’s located just outside the main entrance to Phase Two under the umbrella-like canopy people use to shelter in when the go out to have a smoke.

“When is this going to be finished?”

(two caretakers on behalf of other staff)

“It’s really irritating!” (administrative staff)

“What does this stuff relate to?” (graphic design student)

“What a seductive voice!” (visiting tutor – male)

One of the things I’ve observed by watching people interact with this work is that the sound disrupts their established routines and that most don’t expience this as a positive thing. Rather, they become irritated.

I think this sense of irritation is acerbated by the irregular timings I have edited into the piece – sometimes there is a gap of only a couple seconds between spoken quotations, while at other times I’ve left silences run for up to 5 minutes. It’s all done by a random, shuffle-like, system and they’re for not predictable. Is it this that irritates?

It might be the random timing, but the more I think about it, and the more I observe people responding to the piece, the more I think that it is its “out of place ness” that annoys. This seems odd. It is an Art School and you’d expect people in an Art School to welcome the unexpected…

Oddly, this seems a very conservative space. Could it be the neighboring suburbs? Might this conservativeness be why so much effort has gone into segregating different activities within the HKP’s originally open plan scheme. Where has the beanbag culture gone?

The project has been live since March 8th (by some coincidence, international Women’s day!) but to date, with the exception of a lone smoker, no one has asked me what the script refers to. I did not expect this…

Fri Apr 28 21:27:46 UTC 2006 paul antick said…

I don’t miss the beanbags. But I do like the sound piece although I think it might be improved if you reduced the gaps between sound bites and turned the volume up a bit.

Tue May 16 13:04:55 UTC 2006 andrew kearney said…

The MP3 player has packed-in. I’m in the process of getting it replaced. I’m re-programming the sequencing at the moment, playing with different timings and with the length of silence between clips. Still not sure how the next mix will turn out.

Tue May 16 13:11:43 UTC 2006 andrew kearney said…

Yes, I think that it is worth giving some time to exploring the way timing impacts on the work – also I wonder about the voices. It would be interesting – I think – to hear other voices. The American male, the Irish woman the rather floral English males voices are a curious mix, especially when performing the technical script (hearing “fletton bricks” in the context of this piece makes you wonder if there is something a little pornographic about them…). I wonder how hearing very different voices would change the way you experience the piece? Would the same materials begin to take on different associations?

Thur June 20 11:34:20 UTC 2006 andrew kearney said …

This work has been pluged out my the caretakers as there has been complants from staff who are working near by with there windows opened and have found it disruptive to there work? Hope to reinstall in the Autum?