Upon entering the SAT gallery, I thought that maybe I had made a wrong turn somewhere. The room didn’t look much like a gallery to me, it instead had elements of a department store display: a fully assembled tent, a big, comfy bed complete with red, plush pillows and a mysterious black box (unopened!), each positioned throughout the white space. But this site was espaceSONO, the audio-listening lab showcasing the works of 36 sound-artists from all over the world.
Once inside I was immediately drawn to the tent! After removing my shoes so I wouldn’t muck up the tent’s neat interior, I listened to Helen Thorington’s ‘Calling to Mind II (For Joe)’, a piece that I couldn’t really get into. The sounds were, to me, unpleasant: discordant violins, clock chimes, train whistles and other shrill noises. The listening was a little too intense for me while in the tent. So, I decided to leave the campground and check out the mysterious black box. The inside was dimly lit by two computer displays with attached headsets, which made it hard to find the ‘play’ button in the dark. But I plunked my way along and listened to another piece, ‘Binaural Architecture Military Island, Times Square’ by Jamie Allen. The sounds he captured were that of the everyday occurring at the two locales in his title. I heard bits of conversations that people were having, a baby crying, a bus stopping, and somebody’s Mp3 player whose volume was on bust. I wound up confusing some of the sounds in this piece with the sounds that were happening outside the gallery – St. Laurent is a busy street!
This was my first experimental audio-exhibit, so I didn’t really know what to expect. What I liked best about the espaceSONO environment were the fun props that the audience gets to play with while listening to the artist’s pieces. Sound-art is a pretty tough medium to convey, as the listener is relying one sense, the sense of sound, for interpretation. Perhaps that’s why it was important that the espaceSONO supplied a set of props for the audience to interact with. The tent, the black box and the bed installments each invited the listener to ‘think outside the box’ (or this case, inside the box) and gain a different perception of the sound-art presented. As an audience member, I didn’t enjoy all of the sounds created by the artists, but with every noise I did experience some reaction, be it positive or negative. And I did appreciate the artist’s efforts in trying to present everyday, real sounds in a new and challenging way.
“espaceSONO :: upgradeMTL :: september 5th – october 5th 2007.” 18 Sep. 2007 <http://upgrademtl.org/archives/Sept0507.htm>
“New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., turbulence.org, somewhere.org, New American Radio, Helen Thorington, new.radio@verizon.net. “Helen Thorington/Home Page.” 18 Sep. 2007 <http://new-radio.org/helen/>
“jamie allen // heavyside.net.” 18 Sep. 2007 <http://heavyside.net/>
Thank you for your very attentive review. Feel free to contact me if you’d like to attend the show on the 27th (on the guestlist). best, tobias c. van Veen (curator). tobias (at) upgrademtl (dot) org.
hmm.. bookmarked ))