artintelligence

Suchan Kinoshita’s sound installation was one of the most impressive pieces in the Munster Sculpture Project 07. One can quibble about whether it is actually sculpture, but what is more interesting is that as sculptural installation art gradually leaves the limelight, aesthetic uses of technology (in this case three-dimensional sound) move towards centre stage as the most significant contributors to contemporary artistic production.

The installation was in a building in the inner city and one had to use the little map provided plus some mercifully helpful signs that directed the visitor to the work, which like many in Munster, was not that easy to find (there very very few such helpful signs). The room was white and covered floor walls and ceiling in acoustic tiles. Speakers were mounted on the walls and voices spoke in whispers from one speaker to another. The concept Kinoshita used was simple, simple ideas are consistently most effective aesthetically and this installation is no exception. One sat in the room looking at the blank white walls or out of a large double glazed picture window with a venetian blind that showed the street outside, and one listened as an initial sentence whispered in German from the speakers and translated via headphones was gradually mutated via its passage from one speaker to another. You can listen to the work here and some of the whispers are transcribed below:

… its about a word, residents of a city who are strangers, businessmen. It’s a register of people residents of a city, strangers, merchants. It’s a register of strangers, of people from the city. It’s a register of strangers, of people in the city.

The room is in the inner city you can rent it. It is covered in papers, but you can look into it. It is vast and has little spaces and a smooth pvc floor, in the middle there is a brown carpet. The room is in the inner city it is covered in papers but you can rent it. It’s vast and it’s got little corners. In the middle there is brown carpet. The room is in the inner city but what is it about? It’s covered with papers but you can rent it, in the middle of the room there is a colour, in the inner city, it is brown, covered in papers …

At the end of the poetic performance an electric motor is activated that slowly closes the venetian blinds shutting out the city that the work is apparently concerned with.