Space no.1 is a site-specific proposal created specifically for the Centre Clark (Montreal). The listener sits near the entrance, at the left of the front door, close to the office, looking at the gallery space, with all the books around them. All the recordings comprising this audio piece were created on location, in the exact listening position of the visitor using binaural microphones. The sound piece mixes recordings of the gallery space in its “normal” state (documentary recordings) with recordings of sound fictions created in the gallery by 6 performers. The piece opens up the gallery to imaginary events anchored in a physical spatial experience of the site.
Space no. 1, excerpt – 05:53
(please listen with headphones in order to hear the approximation of the spatial diffusion)
In Space no.1, the in situ binaural recordings create a deep sensation of “realness”. As I slowly add other layers of sounds (events that have never happened but that could happen) to the “normal” soundscape of the gallery, possibilities are opened.
The idea here is to “redo the space” sonically, adding layers of small events, playing with the real scale/shape/dimensions of the space. Of course, the piece and “what is really happening in the space” intertwine constantly : a sound space that creates short circuits between fiction and reality, introducing virtualities; a sound space that – maybe – refuses any fixedness.
Centre d’art et de diffusion Clark, Montreal. Audio player, headphone. Special thanks to the sound performers and especially to Maroussia. Photo: Julie Faubert