In Media Res

6 Channel Site-Specific Sound Installation // in medias res is a site specific work created for the 2007 Wisconsin Triennial hosted by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. The work is located in a hallway that is neither designed nor utilized as exhibition space. Instead it serves as an access point for the freight elevator, stage doors to the lecture hall, a fire escape, and through way to a gallery which was added to the museum layout late in the game. The sound consists of two compositions. One composition is played through 4 surround speakers in the four corners of the hall, and the other through 2 highly focused emitters on either side of a red dot halfway through the hall. The emitters play a loop of straightforward, unprocessed recordings that were made in three distinct situations’ a tap dancing lesson, a cello lesson, and a French lesson. The right speaker plays the call of the teacher and the left the response of the student. This part of the installation can only be heard when standing on the red circle. The surround sound composition is highly manipulated and blends the re-mixed, processed sounds of the virtuosos with those of the building’s mechanical room; the administrative offices; the freight elevator. I hope to imply a narrative that questions how we plug into architectures that create meaning, hierarchy, and expectation.