At today’s class we explored what site specific means in context of art and sound art. We explained briefly the distinction between site, space and place; site being a specific location (like a particular gallery or the LCC; space – similar to the site but in the architectural frame and place as a geographic location.

We played some sounds in the fire exit corridor. The space has quite good acoustic despite it being stretched up over 4 (I think) floors. It’s made almost entirely of smooth grey concrete with some metal elements, which turned out to be a great resonators. Even though the sounds were pretty silent (we played a few raw and edited field recordings and some synthesised sounds from a small speaker and directly from the phone. The lower we went the louder we could hear the beeping of the fire alarm sensor. Its constant, brain piercing sound (with some variation after approximately 4 beats) mixed pretty well with ambient and drones sounds that were played.

My feelings were immediately that the spaces would benefit from having some discreet, permanent sound installation, although it would probably get lost of lower floors because of the previously mentioned noise. Considering the character of the space and what a lot of people associate it with (fire alarm, panic, having to get out of the building suddenly) it would make sense for some soothing ambient drones to exist there.

The sound travelled up and down and everything seemed to vibrate gently, with the sound appearing to build up and becoming more intense over time. There was no one around apart from our group so we had a time to explore it in peace without anyone randomly passing by.

This experience reminded me of a sound exhibition I encountered few years ago walking by the river late at night. I was near one of the bridges somewhere in East London (I think it must’ve been either Tower or London Bridge) quite late at night, no one was around and I started hearing sounds that were of horses, people talking and a general human activities. What was striking was the absence of people around and speakers were invisible. The noise was not the type of sounds I would here in London (or anywhere else really), it was like being in some old movie. At that time I had no idea of sound art and me and my friend left the place in awe. I did researched it some time after and realised that it was an intentional installation, not a dream that I found myself into as I initially assumed.

One of the works we discussed today (NYC under ground – check name) was also this elusive, hidden and not obvious creation, that playing sounds in the fire exit made me think of. The kind of work that leaves people uncertain of what they have just encountered but also gives them a feeling of something they have discovered themselves and can now cherish forever. It is a good and empowering feeling.