James Schidlowsky draws on a minimalist sound aesthetic and the processes of salvaging and accumulating common objects for his new installation. Vertical panels hold a sundry collection of loudspeakers the artist found on the sidewalk. The varied timbres of the speakers form the basis of the installation. By conveying the same sound through different speakers, Schidlowsky attempts to thwart our perception of the signal’s origin. Controlled by electronic circuits patched together by the artist, each speaker emits a sound in a sporadic and random fashion. The orchestrated spatialization and above all the imperfect circuitry produce a disconcerting sonic space. The eye naturally seeks the origin of the sound, which is constantly rerouted, producing a feeling of strangeness and giving the work, which is nonetheless stationary, a sense of movement.
Every day at 4 pm, we offer a different mode of listening to the installation, for those who have the time for a deeper listening experience. It is the artist's favorite way of listening to the piece. Rather than generate random tones, this alternate operating mode generates sequential tones, starting from the lowest and reaching the highest frequency in 48 minutes. As the frequency of the tones increases over time, more and more speakers are able to better reproduce them, thus it is a kind of "sonic awakening".