Listening Labyrinth
[May 12, 2006]
The Listening Labyrinth was an installation that was open for one week in a small, hardly-populated garden outside of the Cleveland Institute of Art. Through a labor of love the garden was sculpted to create two labyrinths.
One labyrinth was painted around the trees in the center of the garden.
The other was painted on the bottom of an unused fountain pool.
The Listening Labyrinth was my thesis project for my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art. For this project I recorded interviews with 20+ people who I asked a series of questions regarding their hopes, fears, dreams and desires. Here are some example questions :
What do you think about a lot?
What would you like to change about yourself?
What do you really want to do?
When do you feel most: Weak/strong, In control/Helpless, Satisfied/ Anxious, Fulfilled/ Empty
What were you told about your birth or life before memory?
What is your earliest memory?
Describe a memory.
Describe a dream.
When was the last time that you cried? Do you remember why?
Can you remember feeling hurt? Please describe.
After the interviews the audio was edited in order to keep responses fairly brief. Then, the individual answers were put onto CDs.
For the final installation 4 CDs were created that broadcast on 3 different frequencies. Participants were invited to walk one of the two labyrinths and listen to each station on programmable fm radios that allowed them to flip between the stations at the push of a button.
As participants walked through the labyrinth they listened to the responses of people from the tight-knit community at CIA (Cleveland Institute of Art). They were able to walk the winding path at their own casual pace, to the center and back out again.
