The Sense of Another Dimension

The Sense of Another Dimension/Mobile Works, 2005,
audio recordings, various lengths

In 2004, I spent hours making field recordings at the Whitney Biennial, focusing on capturing the Whitney’s docent-led tours. I sampled these recordings, along with those I made on my way to and from the museum, adding beats and “sound granules,” the clicks and pops that were the by-product of my recording process.
These recordings became the basis of a glitchtronica soundtrack for the Whitney Biennial. I produced a limited-edition book that included a CD of the soundtrack and images of text messages taken from cell phone screens, which quote the songs and “drop lifted” these books into the Whitney Museum bookstore. Additionally, I sampled the songs and created limited-edition, downloadable cell phone ringtones, available on my website.

This work explores “authorized speech,” reordering the art institution’s voice so that it speaks about uncertainty, chaos, and the conflicts raging between culture and nature, a theme prevalent in the 2004 biennial. By interweaving sound detritus – clicks, pops, and street noise – I create a conversation between “authorized” and “unauthorized” speech, between the cultural institution and the street. By offering these songs as ubiquitous ringtones, I turn the cell phone into a transmitter of affordable, populist, mobile art, broadcasting sonic interjections about culture and the everyday.