THE OVERLOAD PROJECT
Take a seat
Take a Seat is an interactive sound event exploring chance and control.
​It invites participants to collaboratively compose a soundscape, through sitting on chairs fitted with audio-triggering pressure-sensitive pads.
​Whilst the work could not be realised on a larger, public scale, as it was created during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. It dually existed as a proposed public event and a collection of interpretive visualisations; a video of the installation being activated and diagrammatic forms exploring the balance between factors under artistic control and designed areas for playful possibilities. These aim to invite a participant to consider their influence in the proposed space. ​​
This initial version of Take a Seat uses
the common daily ritual of making a brew to invite sound play.
Documents during filming,
Take a Seat, have a brew,
2020.
Digital photograph.
Diagram of Control: Construction, arrangement and sound,
Take a Seat, have a brew,
2020.
Drawing ink on cartridge paper,
60 x 42 cm
Arrangement A dark space with a circle of chairs. An intimate affair. People are made to face each other. The arrangement invites sociability. Watch how their laughter at the plop influences their seriousness at the boil. Watch one hesitantly lower themselves with a fade in, whilst another purposefully plonks themselves with an abrupt bang from the speakers.
Sounds Six sounds, enough to reach overload, yet still be individually distinguishable. The high repetitive tap with the grumbling water burble and the promise of a soothing familiarity. The unifying power of the humble brew. Those sounds of our mundane action resonate with all, yet twisted and intensified, they are uneasy, losing their comforting connotations.
Construction The pressure pad's construction allows for legitimate viewer control over volume. Pressure-sensitive conductive sheet and foam resistance intercept the sound current, whilst the action of sitting forces the circuit's completion, triggering sound. But sitting acts as more than a simple mechanism. It presents you with choices.
This video invites you to envision yourself taking a seat within the space.
Take a Seat, have a brew,
documented imagined installation video,
2020.
4.55 minutes
Composition Only one person is required to start the composition. But add a second and the possible sound combinations increase. Six people and there is only one potential combination, the space is overwhelmingly loud now. What happens when we add volume as a factor of chance?
Diagram of Chance: Composition,
Take a Seat, have a brew,
2020.
Drawing ink on cartridge paper,
60 x 42 cm
Pressure The greater the pressure on the seat, the louder the sound. However, what if one person is jumping up and down on their seat? And another is only resting on the edge? Here is the inexact science. The diagram's shapes appear uniform, but on closer inspection, none are identical. This is the unpredictability of participation.
Diagram of Chance: Pressure,
Take a Seat, have a brew,
2020.
Drawing ink on cartridge paper,
60 x 42 cm
Imagined arrangement,
Take a Seat, have a brew,
2020.
virtual exhibition space.