Janet Cardiff
Janet Cardiff first became known by her attempts to facilitate altered perceptions through “sound walks.” Using binaural audio technology the recording can achieve incredibly precise three-dimensional sound to create an experience of physical immediacy and complexity.
It is easy to get caught up in Janet Cardiff’s narrative of spoken word and sound, I listened to Missing Voice (case study b) and it made me think about what was going through her head when she recorded the sound of the environment and how her private thoughts seeped into the public sector when the participant was able to listen to her comments on the people and buildings around her.
Karen Messer, Office Manager for online magazine Ascent experienced Playhouse (1997) and didn’t want the illusion to end. “I felt dizzy walking back through the curtains into the art gallery. What had I just experienced? What role had I played? Was I just an observer? I felt tricked. I remember being quite captivated by the possibility of there being something under my chair – something that would allow the illusion to continue.”
Interview with Janet Cardiff and project curator Kelly Gordon, July 2005:KG: How do you create such intense three-dimensional soundscapes?
JC: The technique that I use is called binaural audio. I record right on the site, following the exact route that the participant will eventually take. The recording system is made from two microphones mounted in the ears of a dummy head. Because of the head's shape, it captures the way we hear. I get many looks and comments from people as I wander around with this blue (hairdresser's dummy) head held out in front of me.
KG: Can you describe what techniques and strategies you use in Words drawn in water to give participants a kind of out-of-body experience?
JC: Sound has an innate ability to transport you out of your body, so if you give an audience various soundscapes, you can transport them through their imagination into many different places. For example, the sound of ghostly people talking around you can be startling, or the sound of horses going by can give you a sense of the past. I include simple but effective elements such as a fly buzzing your ear, passing musicians, or a helicopter flying overhead to take you out of your body into different imaginary spaces.
http://hirshhorn.si.edu/exhibitions/description.asp?Type=&ID=20escription.asp?Type=&ID=20
