Schedule half an hour this week to take in Janet Cardiff's words drawn on water on the National Mall. The latest installment in the Hirshhorn Museum's "Directions" series, Cardiff's piece is an audio walk recorded with binaural sound technology. You can read about the specs here.
I caught a preview of the show yesterday—it's different from The Paradise Institute, her collaboration with George Burres Miller for the Canadian Pavilion at the 2001 Venice Biennale, and that's the only other work I've seen (heard) by her. I'm now anxious to see Pandemonium at Eastern State Penitentiary near Philly in order to hit the trifecta.
If you go see her work on the Mall soon, here's a tip—jack up the volume at the beginning once you start walking so that you can hear her footsteps, then turn it back down to a normal conversational level once you have an idea of her pacing. You'll want to keep time with her. Also, try not to run into any fourth-graders while you're in the Smithsonian crypt, because they suck. They will laugh at you for reasons you don't understand.
Fun fact: I understand that Cardiff was busy tweaking the sound file up until the day before yesterday.
RELATED: More on Cardiff from back in June.
Posted by Kriston at August 3, 2005 1:46 PMsounds interesting (although the artist using the term "binaural" when "stereo" would suffice makes the geek in me suspicious)
Posted by: tom at August 3, 2005 3:26 PMI think Cardiff's process should satisfy your inner tech geek. She actually places two mics into the head of a dummy in order to physically replicate volume rising and falling with distance, Doppler effects, etc. (She does more complicated things, too, but that much I know about her process without referring to the press packet.)
Posted by: Kriston at August 3, 2005 4:12 PMAlso important to note, it's free! I figured they'd charge $5 or something like the Gallery does for audio tours. Though since the audio is itself the art, it makes sense that it's no charge like the other exhibits.
Posted by: Matt F at August 3, 2005 4:20 PMgeek stuff: binaural is actually a completely different recording process. Cardiff uses a special mic that has two mono microphones placed roughly at the same orientation as our ears. Therefore the sound gets to each channel at a slightly different time and volume, thus giving it that super-cool spatial sound that I like so much. Anyway: There's a great Cardiff book that comes with a cd which has several of her previous walks (Germany, Louisiana, and Italy), which is nice. They must be selling it at the Hirshhorn right about now...
Posted by: Brandon at August 3, 2005 9:06 PMKriston, this sounds really cool. In contrast to my generally low opinion of audio tours, this one seems to make use of the genre as an art medium. And binaural too :)
Posted by: David at August 4, 2005 6:05 PMI want to say something about this article. This article gives information relating to the binaural sound depends on the mind relaxation and binaural is actually a completely different recording process.The headsets and mono microphones placed roughly at the same orientation as our ears.
binaural sound
I am very enjoyed for this blog. Its an informative topic. It help me very much to solve some problems. Its opportunity are so fantastic and working style so speedy. I think it may be help all of you. Thanks.
Posted by: Ryan Unangst at April 24, 2011 9:30 AMHey there, I think your blog might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your blog site in Firefox, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, amazing blog!
Posted by: Ceola Magil at July 29, 2011 2:08 AM