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A
"sound poem" for Piazza Angelio, Barga (LU) Italy February
1999
This is a site specific installation originally commissioned
for Piazza
Angelio but which has since grown into a piece of work involving
most of Barga Vecchia. A
computer, voice recognition software and a microphone were
installed in the Osteria Angelio for one evening. The ambient
sounds of people talking , drinking and eating within the Osteria
were recorded, translated and printed onto paper sheets. The
American
voice recognition software had great difficulty coping with
the mainly Italian voices, the music and the general ambient
background sounds. What was finally printed onto the paper
was a series of seemingly unrelated English words but if looked
at in a lighter vein could be quite easily read as a kind of
mixture between Dada
and Haiku poetry. This
generated text forms the basis for the sound poem. It was
my intention to make an installation which harmonised with its
surroundings, therefore not only did I use the actual sounds
from these rooms as the basis for the content of the work, but
I also used the straw coloured paper used to cover the tables
for the form of the work. After working with this paper
for a few days it reminded more and more of wrapping paper or
paper for parcels. I had already delved into the world of
paper and the future of paper for an exhibition in Finland last
year "the
death of paper". After consulting with the paper
manufacture industry one of the points which they often raised
was that paper as a packaging material was always going to be
used. On a more personal level, I sent my years work, over
150 drawings and paintings to Finland packaged up in 30 paper
packages. When they arrived in the gallery in Finland it
struck me that the work was marginally more interesting whilst
still in its packages. I thought then that in the future
it might be interesting to make some work about packages and
packets. The "sound poem" was just such an opportunity
to experiment with this idea. The word "packet"
was originally an early fifteenth century word meaning a small
thin parcel, with the advent of computers and information technology,
it now has a more modern meaning ; the movement of small fixed
amounts of data across electronic communication networks. ( internet
for instance could not function without it's packets )
The "sound poem" is not a finished complete work and
hopefully should be viewed as a kind of light hearted visual
game , an experiment in background music and text , after all
, we are here to meet , talk and eat and not look at serious
art , right ? ?
"Packets" will be on view in Piazza Angelio
Barga (LU) Italy 2nd February to 28th
February 1999
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