Audio Obscura by Lavinia Greenlaw
Date uploaded: August 17, 2011
Audio Obscura
Lavinia Greenlaw
13 September - 23 October
In the busy public spaces of London's St Pancras International Station, everyday dramas are constantly being acted out; people waiting or rushing, engaged in conversation or lost in their own thoughts.
In Audio Obscura, equipped with headphones, you enter the crowd and overhear voices around you. What did that woman mean? Did he really say that? Does she realise what she is saying? You might wish you hadn’t listened or you might want to know more. You will look for stories and you might even find them...
A co-commission with Manchester International Festival, Audio Obscura is a new sound work by award-winning poet and novelist Lavinia Greenlaw. In an aural equivalent to the camera obscura, the audience experienes the project in a solitary way - hearing fragments of individual narratives, glimpses of interior worlds drawn from monologues that glance off one another, hovering between speech and unconscious thought.
Overhearing these voices, the listener becomes immersed in private thoughts, emotions, recollections and confessions in a very public space, projecting what they hear onto the people they see.
Open daily
12 noon - 8pm
(last headsets dispensed 7.30pm)
Audio Obscura is 30 minutes long
Entry is FREE, no booking required
(credit / debit card or mobile phone required as deposit)
Originally shown:
Manchester Piccadilly Station
Saturday 2 - Sunday 17 July 2011
Cinematic and Suspenseful - The Culture Show, BBC2
Lavinia Greenlaw is in conversation with Cornelia Parker at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel on 3 October at 6.30pm. Tickets are free but booking is essential – visit artangel.org.uk/talks to reserve a place.
An Audio Obscura book by Lavinia Greenlaw, with photos by Julian Abrams, published by Full Circle Editions, is available on site during project hours at the special price of £6 (normal retail price £9.99).
Audio Obscura is commissioned and produced by Artangel and Manchester International Festival, with the kind cooperation of Network Rail. Artangel gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Emmanuel Roman.
Visit www.artangel.org.uk/projects/2011/audio_obscura/audio_obscura/about_the_project
