Janet Cardiff and Bures Miller
An Experiment in Time
Berlin, Germany: Self-published, 2006
15 x 40 x 30 cm.
Edition of 7
"The experience of hearing voices, of having one's consciousness invaded by someone else's memories and reflections, is at once both strangely marvelous and frightening. This is the twilight zone of aural hallucination scripted, recorded and engineered by the Canadian artists Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller. Their sound and filmed works reference musical, literary and cinematic genres that encompass medieval plainsong, pulp fiction, stream of consciousness novels, historical archives and film noir to transform a walk down the road into an existential thriller.
Combining sound and image in immersive and absorbing installations, Cardiff and Bures Miller are especially renowned for their audio walking guides, pre-recorded sound works in which Janet Cardiff's voice takes the listener on a physical and psychological journey. Since 1999, they have expanded their audio walks to include the moving image. Works such as In Real Time, 1999 at the Carnegie International and Conspiracy Theory / Theorie de Complot, 2002-2003 at the Musée d'art contemporain, Montreal, are shot on binaural audio and video and then replayed by the viewer on the same site, causing a strange co-mingling of past and present as different realities overlap.
An Experiment in Time invites the viewer to become co-creator of a video walk in their own home, by following a script that has been specifically designed by the artists and that the viewer will video tape themselves. The artists have described the work thus:
"For this piece we want to create a work in a personal space, collaborating with the collector who would participate in creating a video walk sited in his or her own home. Since most house have a kitchen, living room, bathroom and bedroom, we have created a narrative matrix that will work in any living space. You will be provided with a small DV camera and a shot list that you will then videotape yourself. After you have completed the recording you will send the tapes to us. We will edit in the narrative script and instructions (using Janet's voice) as well as other sounds, music and video. Then we will send the edited version back to you to replay on the provided video camera.
"A wooden box contains all the necessary elements. Instructions, shot list, video camera, binaural microphones and various props, including an early edition of the book An Experiment in Time by John W Dunne published in 1912. All the separate original audio and video components will be included so that if the purchaser moves (or sells the work) another version could be created in a different location. This could be edited by the artists or in the event that they are unavailable any video editor could put it together from the instructions supplied.”
- didactic panel
