Sound installation. The Speakers is both a process of engagement and a physical installation.
It inhabits a public space, and temporarily transform it into a kind of worm-hole between people and spaces, real & digital, past & live, local & global. Inspired by the role of Twitter in revolutionary movements, the piece focuses around the words of people defending their right to ‘speak out’ and explores the ‘choreography of assembly’ in the digital age.
“The Speakers” has brought to life a fascinating paradox consisting of intense emotions or complex thoughts condensed into 140 characters and the continuous sharing of the crudest realities via the most “unreal” means. It all takes place in a smoky venue where the performance simmers like tea on a stove, surrounded by speakers that broadcast these intriguing sentences taken from the internet and spoken in a local vernacular. In this scenario these disembodied texts become human voices, that transpose our world with another’s, momentarily breaking down the barrier between the digital world and the reality of human life.”
The installation presents a flock of voices, each floating beneath an umbrella, speaking a stream of short fragments of text, realised both in sound & light. Gathered around ‘real’ wood burners – heating pots of fresh mint tea – they occupy a public space and give voice to the unspoken. Each node offers a different thread within which we are invited to wonder. Walking amongst them – whilst a theme emerges – each of our own pathways between them, and their context, patch together new personal threads of meta-narrative.
‘The Speakers’ offers a mechanism for people to explore the intangible public realm offered by social media in a real tangible and local context. The content is gathered both from the ‘macro’ perspective offered by the web and social movements, and the ‘micro’ perspective of the very personal and local.
Drawing on an ever evolving archive of material gathered for each rendition and site, in Pristina the work will gather material related to people defending freedom of expression and the freedom of movement.
Artist Thor McIntyre and Aswarm aim to create tools for people to re-evaluate the potential of public space, and explore the relationship between sound and site.
“The speakers” in HAPU Festival in Prishtina is brought to you in association with British Council. [logo]
Lead Artist: Thor McIntyre-Burnie (Aswarm)
CoArtist: Toby Jarvis (Aswarm)
Thursday, 10th September from 11:00h – 14:00h and from 17:00h – 21:00h
Friday, 11th September from 10:00h – 13:00h and from 17:00h – 21:00h
Saturday, 12th September from 10:00h – 13:00h and from 17:00h – 21:00h
Mother Theresa Boulevard – behind Skenderbeg Statue
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