Memory-Go-Round

For two of the installations we chose to go with domestic 5.1 surround sound receivers and speakers, coding the surround sound into video formats to play through laptop computers (this caused the most headaches, getting the video coding right so that the right tracks were in the right speakers, and the right video player got the right signals, akin to herding cats). For David Baker’s memory (in the one small, square, separated gallery space) I was able to create a ‘classic’ surround mix to immerse the audience in a car driving at night, in the rain. For Barry Robinson’s work, in the large long space, I built a freer, minimal soundscape of a suburban garden with moving sounds (lawnmowers, dogs, traffic, birds). For Madeleine Prasad, we used small battery operated sound buttons that the audience could press to hear her talk about her memories. For Tammy Smith’s experience, that involved her voice alone ‘backstage’ then a video of her performing on stage as the audience moved around, we used a stereo mix and two powered speakers, sending one channel backstage, one to the front.

With limited budget and unlimited imagination, we faced the challenge of creating separate experiences including sound, in a gallery without distinct separate rooms or sound baffling. I also needed to create a five minute loop of music (that we called the ‘carousel’) that would play in all spaces at the end of each work, signalling the audience to move on. We were unable to use a central synced system, so all installations had to be triggered manually to begin, and then all loop for a few hours. This meant that each naturally moved out of sync over time. The music I composed for the carousel was deliberately a little abstracted, so that when the works lost sync it would add to the effect of an abstract carousel.