Inspired by Brandon LaBelle’s _Sonic Agency_ (2018), I wanted to make a sound installation that explores the political potential of the use of sound as a medium – to control or be controlled – as an immersive experience. The setup of the installation reflects aspects of public speaking spaces and draws on Alvin Lucier’s seminal piece “I am sitting in a room” (1969). It invites the audience to actively engage and co-create the work by reading the text while distracted by previous recordings. The obstacles occurring in this activity require participants to concentrate on reading the material designed to evoke feelings of empowerment.

Participants speak into a microphone connected to a laptop that feeds a pure data patch which reacts by playing back the recordings of those who have previously read: “I am speaking loud so that you can hear me well. The echoes of past voices, recorded for posterity, resonate within me, amplifying my own … .” The point is to create a harmony of voices reading the identical text highlighting the energy of a community while employing an individualistic act of speaking by themselves. With the replaying mechanism, the work also captures the unique resonance of the space.

The installation was developed as part of Petra Klusmeyer’s Sound and Research-Creation project at the University of the Arts Bremen and presented during Open House (Hochschultage) 2023. Thanks to Jukka Boehm for technical and coding support and Hsun Hsiang Hsu for photographs.