The listening room, Chisenhale Gallery, London

The Listening Room is part of Activated Space, David Cunningham's project to develop and present a series of installations that alter an architectural space in real time to allow its resonant frequencies to become audible and interactive. The project combines elements from sculpture, electronic media, music, architecture and acoustics.

The work addresses the following issues:

Primary:
How can active listening be encouraged?
How does our awareness of acoustic surroundings influence our perceptions?
What happens if you magnify the sound of a room?

Secondary:
Why is the role of sound increasingly coming to the fore within the Fine Arts?
How does technological change cause perceptual shifts which generate new potentials for awareness both inside an art/music context and generally?

The Listening Room is a series of installation works which in some way ask those present to listen to the space they're in. The work can confront people with an ambiguous space which is often part of a fairly rich soundfield. This text is structured around discussion and writing which relate to The Listening Room. My own statements on the work have tended towards the minimal; on previous occasions I haven't felt the need to describe the implications of the work, generally believing that the structure speaks for itself.

An interview recorded during The Listening Room installation appears on Audio Arts, Volume 14 number 3. Audio Arts, 6 Briarwood Road, London SW4 9PX, UK.

A recorded version of the work was released on the compilation CD Silence (a tribute to John Cage), catalogue number 36CD-NO20, released by Wacoal Art Center, 5-6-23 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-Ku, Tokyo 107. This is currently out of catalogue. The recorded version was constructed from overlays of four separate recordings of a version of the work installed at Newham Leisure Centre in East London.

The CD 'Water ', catalogue number piano 510