I COULD HAVE TOLD YOU THAT
Sound installation
Duration 15 min
Wireless headphones, motion sensors, light, MAX/MSP and contact microphones, built structures
Collaboration with Juha Laatikainen
FAFA Gallery
Helsinki, Finland
2007
The entrance of the gallery was made to a reception area. Here the viewer got wireless headphones before entering the installation. Only one person could enter at a time. The installation was divided in six different scenes.
All the scenes had their own soundtrack that was activated through motion sensors and played to the wireless headphones.
The sounds were recorded using a binaural recording method, which gave a believable presence to the characters in the space. All the lights were in sync with the spectator’s movements and usually only one spot was on at a time. This made the overall look of the space dark. The story was written and recorded in a way that the role of the viewer changed from a bystander to a participant.
As a first scene you witness an encountering of a woman and a man in the same street what you are looking from the other side of the glass. In the scene the man gets an invitation to a party at the woman’s home. The viewer is asked to enter through the door. The viewer enters the room as the man in the story; the woman kindly welcomes him inside. In the beginning the atmosphere is slightly awkward, he is the first guest to arrive. The have a difficulty in starting a conversation. Gradually some sort of a discussion starts and after the man tells a story he’d just read, the situation becomes more comfortable. Only to be broken by an unforeseeable event.
The scenes after this small disaster eventually left the viewer alone in the story and in the space. The fifth scene was a built floor with contact microphones underneath, where the viewer could only hear the amplified sound of his/her footsteps as an evidence of ones existence in the space.
Actors:
Anna-Mari Karvonen
Miikka Tuominen
Music:
Michiko Isogai
Supported by: The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland & The Finnish Academy of Fine Arts