Listening experience of 'The Visitors' by Ragnar Kjartansson, consisting of 9 channel video projections and sound. Each channel has its own room tone, with the exception of one outdoor shot that is rich with insect ambient sounds. Most visitors sit fairly centred in the space, watching the musicians on the screens. But, by moving through the space, playing with proximity and distance, live movements and small details unique to each sonic space is revealed, eg.; splash of the bathtub (which is also intentionally used in the composition eventually), taps of instruments being arranged, mumbles, low sung words, breath...
Movement through the exhibition space results in a more dynamic listening experience. Yet the way the projections are setup does not invite this play of proximity and distance for the viewer as when I moved through the space, my shadow was projected onto each screen. It was difficult not to obstruct other people's view as the speaker(s) were placed in the centre of each image. In this case there was conflict between my ability to follow ears and eyes while interacting with the work.
Do these distinct room tones and outside ambiences matter less to the artist? Is there a listening hierarchy here in the way that the vocals and music are aligned and foregrounded to draw our focus? Is it disregard for ambiences? I mean, it's ok if it is. Instead of a clean studio like recording, I found all of these small ambient sounds gave life to the work; we hear a lived-in space, we hear old mansion architecture, a space that is alive, and with one performer per room we have an allusion to the synchronization of the performers through space and time.