action at a distance

action at a distance is a 5 channel audio system, a hybrid between a field recording and a series of musical compositions that will be inserted at different times throughout the duration of the exhibition, creating an open-ended score.

A one-take field recording, made in Rome, forms the structural base of the work and remains the only fixed property of the piece. The recording, which documents the sounds of human interactions, animals, passers-by and traffic, is the mould through which various sonic inputs are re-shaped and in turn distributed into the exhibition space.

The properties of the field recording, such as amplitude, frequency and velocity, are applied to the guest compositions it hosts. Where a guest composition lacks the range in frequencies present in the ambient recording, the latter can be perceived more clearly. For example, the high pitched sound of a bird might not be touched by a given composition, allowing the natural to co-exist with the laboured or composed acoustics.

The field recording directs, affects and warps the trajectory of the music that travels through it, forming a work that experiments with the idea of an open score: half-structured, half-contingent, overlapping the meanings of both, with everyday life becoming the structure for that which is human-made.

At the far end of the room, an architectural intervention reveals a hidden window, flattening the various distances between the controlled environment of the museum and the improvised outdoors: the birds, the city, the daily life surrounding the institution.

The musical elements of the work are made in collaboration with London based musician, Lara Laeverenz, and the technical realisation of the work is developed with the support of sound designer, Oriol Campi.