Sound installation and performance project commissioned by the Tectonics Festival in Iceland, performed in the Harpa hall, Reykjavik.
12 speakers, a microphone stand, sound system, single spotlight and a stage.
This work takes place in a small theater, and deals with the space itself and the sub-spaces that are formed within, in the voices that are heard inside the viewer's mind and the relations of those to the act.
12 hidden speakers are placed all around the theater's seating area. On stage, a microphone on a stand is placed, and is linked to the theater's sound system. There is a single spotlight on the Microphone stand.
There are two dimensions to this work: The first one, a one-hour long piece, is played through the small speakers that are hidden in the audience area. The piece is quiet, gentle, at times even timid, occasionally ascending. The piece emulates the voices that can only be heard within a person's mind during and before the act. These voices are, in fact, present inside the artist's mind, as she goes about her daily routine - speech and whispers, small poems, beats and emotions, tears, laughter, and various random thoughts of different kinds; going to the supermarket, and any other insignificant activities during the day. A dozen voices that are heard simultaneously, at times responding to one another, at times running parallel to each other, or contradicting each other. The other dimension of the act can only take place if one of the audience dares to approach the microphone and sing or speak into it. His voice is heard in the theater's sound system, and then, the voices that were heard before start to respond and react to the new sounds. These responses are randomly selected by computer software, out of a bank of dozens of pre-programmed audio responses. The random selection goes to show that it is actually impossible to prepare and anticipate reactions from the crowd with regard to a certain work of art, and therefore the attempt to try and pinpoint the audience's interest and attention in advance, is futile and is doomed to failure. In fact, when these responses take place, their randomness sounds natural, as if it were a predictable response.
Open Mic Knight was commissioned by the Tectonics Festival in Iceland and was performed in the Harpa hall, Reykjavik, in March 2012.