Project blog

I settled on a final selection of sentences for the voice in the plughole to say. It was a tough editing process, but I'm quite happy with the selection / order. They share a style and perspective which some others lacked, and consistency of the voice tone and genre feels like an important thing to maintain. A lot of them are imperatives (Do/Don't do sth) or stated as bold facts - it's quite important that the voice has some authority.

Next, I recorded them (the audio loop is about a minute and a half) and then, listening to the spoken track on headphones, recorded a gargle track to mirror the timings and intonations of the spoken track. I got a sore throat. I made a note that if I remade it with someone else's voice, this bit might be tricky.

The Winter Residency Artists' Work in Progress sharing event at the studio this week was a really good chance to show fellow residents the prototype of the tap, play the recordings, and demo how the interaction works. I also got to talk a bit about the ideas behind the project and how it sits amongst the bigger idea of putting small discoverable moments out in the world. 

I really appreciated getting feedback and having people share their insights as a small group. People had really good ideas and we had interesting and useful discussions about what you have to consider when you put things in a space like a public bathroom, how the audience has its own audience, and the infinite number of ways that people might respond to the installation and the interpretations they might bring. We talked about how important or not it is to have a definitive interpretation and how much of a gap you might be happy with between your intention and allowing space for people to bring their own experiences and reactions to it. I was able to get some feedback on the choice of tone - is it too stern that it becomes too jokey? (it's going to be a bit funny, whatever, but it's not too overdone so that it's overly ironic) and the implications of having a continuous gargle track versus one that mirrors the sentences exactly (the latter is much harder to achieve, but suggests the voice is going to carry on regardless).

The plumbing solution continues to be just beyond reach, despite the addition of A Very Pleasing Pipe with a Very Pleasing Noise.