Ambient

An installation that consists of video, wireless audio and ambient sound. Each video monitor shows the still image of a novel that has been adapted for commercial film. The soundtracks to the ‘still image’ videos consist of the non-dialogue sound effects (theme music, ‘scary’ sounds, footsteps etc.) from the films. The videos run the length of the edited sound effects from the respective film (~ 20 - 40min) and include both the novel and film credits. As visitors wander through the installation wearing wireless & directional headphones, they hear the sound effects from the video monitor they are looking at – as they turn their gaze, the sound track shifts. The ‘visual-path’ of a viewer, then, determines a unique sound experience. When visitors are not wearing the headphones, they hear the ambient sounds of a large study hall (turning pages, rustling paper, coughs etc) and see the covers of different books on the monitors (but not hear the film sound effects). The installation includes a large “study hall” table and 4 chairs in the centre of the space. In addition to the glow from the monitors, two study lamps on the table provide the illumination in the room.

When books are adapted for film, there is a certain loss of information. The film director controls the ‘story’ in a single condensation and representation of the novel. Unlike reading the book, there is little room in its film for the viewer’s imagination. Ambient seeks to further reduce each film to a single image and its sound effects. This loss of information paradoxically enables a multiplication of meaning. Through the drastic reduction of visual information (text and images) and narrative dialogue details, this project enables the viewer to return to an active role in the creation of meaning from the aural clues presented in this installation. Here, the viewers are acoustic ‘bricoleurs’ of commercially suggestive and highly contrived sounds used to enhance and create meaning in contemporary Hollywood film. What is the unique ‘story/ies’ that a viewer tells herself while listening to the strangely familiar sounds from the various novels & screen plays? The non-linear experience of the installation allows visitors to temporarily break free from the prescriptive qualities of commercial film and to tap into the imaginative creation of their own individual narrative.