06 | RESEARCH IN PRACTICE

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PART ONE // RESEARCH
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Janet Cardiff (born 15/03/1957 in Brussels, Ontario) is a Canadian installation artist who works in collaboration with her partner George Bures Miller. Cardiff and Miller are internationally renowned for their immersive installations, involving film, objects and sound. Their elaborate environments draw the viewer into captivating fictional worlds.
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Cardiff + Miller
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THE KILLING MACHINE | 2007


Partly inspired by Franz Kafka's 'In the Penal Colony' and partly by the American system of capital punishment as well as the current political situation, the piece is an ironic approach to killing and torture machines. A moving megaphone speaker encircles an electric dental chair. The chair is covered in pink fun fur with leather straps and spikes. In the installation are two robotic arms that hover and move- sometimes like a ballet, and sometimes attacking the invisible prisoner in the chair with pneumonic pistons. A disco ball turns above the mechanism reflecting an array of coloured lights while a guitar hit by a robotic wand wails and a wall of old TV’s turns on and off creating an eerie glow.

In our culture right now there is a strange deliberate and indifferent approach to killing. I think that our interest in creating this piece comes from a response to that. more...
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PIANORAMA | 2005


An old fashioned upright piano sits in the middle of the space. There are two small loudspeakers on top of it. A mechanical device (which plays the piano), sits on top of the keys. Out of one loudspeaker comes Janet’s voice and out of the other comes George’s. These voices are discussing what type of music might be appropriate for what seems to be a film they are planning.

Pianorama audio excerpt

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PARADISE INSTITUTE | 2001


With this work, originally produced for the Canadian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Cardiff and Miller focus on the language and experience of cinema. Viewers approach a simple plywood pavilion, mount a set of stairs, and enter a lush, dimly lit interior complete with red carpet and two rows of velvet-covered seats. Once seated, they peer over the balcony onto a miniature replica of a grand old movie theatre created with hyper-perspective. This is the first in a series of illusions orchestrated by Cardiff and Miller. Viewers then put on the headphones provided and the projection begins.

At least two stories run simultaneously. There is the “visual film” and its accompanying soundtrack that unfolds before the viewers; layered over this is the “aural action” of a supposed audience. The film is a mix of genres: it is part noir, part thriller, part sci-fi, and part experimental. What is more particular about the installation is the personal binaural “surround sound” that every individual in the audience experiences through the headphones. The sense of isolation each might feel is broken by intrusions seemingly coming from inside the theatre. A cellphone belonging to a member of the audience rings. A close “female friend” whispers intimately in your ear: “Did you check the stove before we left?” Fiction and reality become intermingled as absorption in the film is suspended and other realities flow in.


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AUDIO WALKS
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The format of the audio walks is similar to that of an audioguide. You are given a CD player or iPod and told to stand or sit in a particular spot and press play. On the CD you hear my voice giving directions, like “turn left here” or “go through this gateway”, layered on a background of sounds: the sound of my footsteps, traffic, birds, and miscellaneous sound effects that have been pre-recorded on the same site as they are being heard. This is the important part of the recording. The virtual recorded soundscape has to mimic the real physical one in order to create a new world as a seamless combination of the two. My voice gives directions but also relates thoughts and narrative elements, which instills in the listener a desire to continue and finish the walk.

All of my walks are recorded in binaural audio with multi-layers of sound effects, music, and voices (sometimes as many as 18 tracks) added to the main walking track to create a 3D sphere of sound. Binaural audio is a technique that uses miniature microphones placed in the ears of a person. The result is an incredibly lifelike 3D reproduction of sound. Played back on a headset, it is almost as if the recorded events were taking place live.

Janet Cardiff, from The Walk Book

Click here for Audio Walks examples

VIDEO WALKS
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A video walk is similar to an audio walk but functions quite differently because of the visuals. With a video walk the participants receive a small digital video camera with headphones. The tape that they watch has been previously recorded on the site with a professional camera and binaural microphones following the route, which has been prepared with actors and props. Then there is an extensive editing process using the acted scenes, sound effects, and video effects to create a continuous motion. The audience follows this prerecorded film on the camera. The architecture in the video stays the same as the physical world, but the people and their actions change, so there is a strange disjunction for the viewer about what is real.

GHOST MACHINE | 2005

The theatre was built in 1907 by Oskar Kaufmann and is a beautiful, intimate, old-fashioned place, with a maze of staircases and backrooms that normally a theater audience wouldn’t be able to access. We decided to do a video walk using these spaces. One of the main elements of the story involved taking the participant up winding stairs and encountering a room covered in plastic as a parallel to a woman’s journey to visit a man in an apartment. As in most of the walks, the narrative is not clear but there are hints that the man is hiding in the theater attic. In one scene, he gets arrested by police in historical costumes. The final scene is on the stage where, when you turn and see a whole audience watching, you realize that all along you have been part of a play. more...
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EXTENDED CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH | BEYOND JANET CARDIFF
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FELIX'S MACHINES | FELIX THORN
A very good show at Gasworks gallery, south London. Ends 18.01.09
When connected to a computer, Felix’s Machines translate Thorn's compositions into mechanical actions performed by customised drums and piano parts and animated by solenoids, springs and motors. In this way, an electronic means of production is transposed into an acoustic output.



JENNIFER KOSHBIN | MUSIC BOOKS
An artist who places music boxes in old books, with the simple instruction: Place ear to book, turn crank and listen.

Gabriel - thanks for the "thought you might like..."

DALI | RAINY CADILLAC

Insert a Euro and it rains inside the car! Classic Dali.
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PART TWO // RESPONSE
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SEE MIGHTY ROBOT ENTRY