Benjamin Tomasi

The artists recorded a fairly standard situation in a recording studio: a vocalist performing in the live room while the digital audio workstation operator sits in the control room pushing buttons, checking levels etc.
The vocalist is trying to imitate the sound of listening into a seashell only using experimental vocal techniques. Bored by the ongoing attempt to record all possible facets of the sound, the operator drifts away watching videos online. The sound carries him to exotic beaches and then away through the spectrum of related videos and screensavers nurturing his escapist fantasies. Meanwhile the vocal performer records one impression after the other, until he’s exhausted and out of breath.The installation shows the recording situation on a monitor in a silent video. The sound recordings are composed to overlay each other, and played back through modified microphones, mounted in an assemblage with two large seashells.

Coded Cultures 2011, Magazin Wien