The New Sense

Sunday, May 26, 2002

Today was museum day. It's a great idea — having all the museums to open for free one day a year, and lay on buses to shuttle everyone around. The downside is that they're all packed with visitors, so it's hard to see much of the art.
We went to the MAC to see the Janet Cardiff exhibit. She concentrates her efforts on sounds, which B— found very interesting. I must admit, a lot of it was fascinating, but the lineup to listen to her 'Walks' was too long to bother with. Since they're on CD, I don't know why they didn't just make copies so more people could follow them. Typical art-world 'sacredness of the object' museum crap. It's fucking digital, for God's sake! There's nothing sacred about the digital.
Even the room full of objects was a bit stifling, but totally fascinating. It was a bit like going inside someone's memory. Or someone's dream. Strange objects, old photos, bits of writing, surreal juxtapositions and the voices. The voices were like voices you hear in your head. They weren't coming from somewhere — they were already in my head before I heard them. B— really enjoyed that room — there were so many things that were just the right size, and he spent the whole time in there with his eyes closed. He didn't bump into anything or anyone though — even though the room was totally full.
The best part was the singing. A huge room with, I guess, about forty hi-fi speakers on stands in a wide circle. Each speaker played the sound Cardiff had recorded with a different microphone in a church in England while a choir sang a piece of religious music. The effect was awesome. Most of the people listening had their eyes closed like B— . It was somehow other-worldly, while being intensely human. You couldn't follow the words of the hymn (or madrigal, or requiem or whatever) (it might have been in Latin) but the emotion was palpable. I find it so ironic that something which is supposed to be so religious is so effective because it's incredibly human. These were human voices. Only humans make those sounds. And the combination of the voices… It was very, very moving.
B— was so glad I'd taken him there. He seemed so touched by it all and couldn't stop talking about how refreshing it was to experience art which is predominantly non-visual. A breath of freedom from the tyranny of sight, I guess.

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posted by Sara