Project Title: Scapes
Museum/ Institution: The DeCordova Sculpture Garden and Museum, Lincoln MA
Media Category: audio
Program Created: opened July 12, 2010
Program URL: http://vimeo.com/15058020
Project Image(s) and/or Video:
Media Source(s)/Credit: DeCordova Sculpture Garden and Museum
Program Description:
An interactive sound installation by sound artist and musician Halsey Burgund.. The piece is driven by visitor location in the Park, and a custom iPhone app that records visitor voice, plays it back (incorporated with music, for subsequent visitors), and eventually records over it. The app gives prompts for recording: “What do you want to talk about? Ask a question of those who come after you.” The visitors record their thoughts and impressions of the art and landscape, for the next visitors to hear. The words are integrated with algorithmically generated and location-based music, never looped or duplicated. The press release states: “…as visitor’s navigate DeCordova’s Sculpture park with the phones, they will hear location-specific voices, music, and sounds that change as they move through the Park, allowing them to tap into an otherwise invisible landscape of sound”. This is part of the DeCordova’s Platform Series, an artist invitational program, working with the DeCordova's social and physical settings. The piece was funded in part by AT&T, regional arts councils and private donors.
Press release: (Platform3release.pdf)
Firsthand or secondary review/critique:
This looks like a fabulous piece, and I am sorry not to witness it first hand. A rave review by Nancy Proctor (Head of Mobile Media Strategies and Initiatives at the Smithsonian) describes its importance well: http://wiki.museummobile.info/archives/16082
I would call this aural augmented reality. A stroll through a sculpture garden is changed utterly by what we are hearing. Visitors are drawn into the piece by the ghost-like, asynchronous voices of previous visitors, who are describing what the current visitor is looking at. It seems an immersive and gentle way of making the most of user-generated content. Using the prompts, the fun technology, and sense of anonymity may help a viewer reflect and react, in a way that they might not in a live setting. And, rather than being a passive receiver of expert advice, the listener can hear the thoughts and musing of fellow viewers, a much more horizontal approach. Additionally, we have a relationship with the physical space. Topographical features of the park determines the music, through areas of music that respond to visitor comings and goings, mixing in proximity. I feel that many, many people in our culture are unused to silence, that music is ubiquitous, around us, carried with us. Silence can make people uneasy, being unused to it. The learning theories of Mihaly Csikszentmihaly show that people learning best when in a state of “flow”, and in our culture, music can facilitate that state. In a museum setting, this type of abstracted, ambient sound can bring about that type of flow experience, helping people enjoy the works of art in a state of receptivity and reflection.
Technologies incorporated: iPhone app, iPhones, GPS, speakers, motion sensors, electronic music.
Internally or externally produced: External, commission
Entry Contributor and Date: Laurie Stepp 2/11/2011
Related projects: Any one interested in this type of sound usage might enjoy the audio works of artists Janet Cardiff/George Bures Miller:
http://www.cardiffmiller.com/artworks/walks/ittingen.html
Comments (3)
Kirsty Gharavi said
at 2:49 pm on Feb 14, 2011
This is certainly different! I can see how it would fit with certain learning theories of 'flow' and being in the moment. I don't know if it's just me, but I find it a bit disconcerting - like an LSD trip!
lstepp1@... said
at 11:39 am on Feb 15, 2011
Apparently sound artist Janet Cardiff exploits this sense for artistsic use, but it does seem like something to minimize when adapting something like this for a more straightforward museum experience.
Mary Whitworth said
at 10:25 am on Feb 16, 2011
This is definately a different way of using audio. I like the topographical features and the change in music. I do think for some visitors it would be interesting but it is somewhat disconnected.
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