2004
stereo sound composition
graphic design
plastic sheets
text composition
stills (for guru dutt) consisted of two works – the first was a sound piece created from electronically processed fragments of background sounds from various scenes in guru dutt’s film pyaasa. because the piece was installed in a large elevator, i was interested in creating a series of short related sound pieces so that each ride in the elevator would have a different soundtrack… and each attempted to be short enough as to hear an entire track during a single ride. thus, i decided to work with a 3 minute compositional length instead of my usual preference of 20 to 40 minutes of continuous sound. the entire work consisted of 10 different 3 minute pieces, sequenced randomly by the audio system’s shuffle mode. the intention was to really engage the people who work in the museum, who ride the elevator constantly, so that they would encounter an number of different audio experiences while using the elevator numerous times a day.
the second part of the installation was a visual/text work created for the lighted ceiling panels that revealed a poetic text that was created by listening to the hindi language lyrics of one of the songs from pyaasa to generate the english “translation” by transcribing the song’s lyrics into phonetic phrases and then “translating” the phrases into english based on various visual and linguistic suggestions. of course, the process was quite idiosyncratic and also intuitive so that a word such as “kaharhen” – repeated in every chorus in the song – suggested the word “hearing” based on how “ka-harhen” sounds related to the word “hearing”. there were also instances of a shorter version of the word which sounded more like “harhen”, and so, this variation of “hearing” became “listen”… and the entire text was generated in this manner.
the yellow squares in the text are simple decorations, systematically placed throughout the text where every capital letter should appear…
the entire work was created as an homage to the work of the indian film director guru dutt who died in 1964, the year i was born. 2004 marked the 40th anniversary of his death and my birth.
here is the entire ceiling text work from the installation:
humming yesterday. humming today.
but not forever.
yesterday. as always. music constantly trembling.
the horizon illuminated with singing.
listen. listen to the atmosphere of every day.
you’re hearing whispers – fragmented words – listen.
listen. listen. listen.
your pure air is all lines.
your clouds are moving.
your smile is made of icicles and caverns.
with eyes closed you see a house surrounded by quiet flowers.
do you know it’s raining fragmented words? listen.
listen. listen. listen.
your noises and silences are small men on a tiny boat.
human saliva is a sea of miniature shipwrecks.
the strangeness of your bird or animal voice
– rings like music and fades.
you’re hearing whispers – fragmented words – listen.
listen. listen. listen.
voices like wood. softly moving.
moving like fire. in the direction of some small thing.
in the distance. some small things are turning over.
repeating.
we are soft moving.
looking for a reservoir of some small things in the sky.
in the heat of summer. rocks and stones speak.
disturbing some small thing.
your breathing. a galaxy of moments and some small things.
you’re hearing whispers – fragmented words – listen.
listen. listen. listen.
your fragile dragging fingers of aluminum.
your breathing is: twilight laser beams ghosts and patterns.
your talking is backwards.
your glowing is retinal.
you. hardly drifting and turning over.
weightless and moving in silence.
drifting like numbers. (and) abandoned hands.
behind old leaves.
behind old leaves your old ears are moistened.
you’re hearing whispers – fragmented words – listen.
listen. listen. listen.
eyes closed. listening to everything. you are wandering trees and trees.
your shadow (and) trees humming the songs of trees.
eyes closed. listening to everything. you are wandering trees and trees.
your shadow (and) trees humming the songs of trees.
tomorrow is not only days and trees but a room of whispering voices.
yesterday your two legs moved into darkness.
you were hearing whispers.
one fragmented word – broken.
you’re hearing whispers – fragmented words – listen.
listen. listen. listen.
the piece was commissioned for curator gretchen wagner’s elevator music series.