Jason's Sound Project

Private to Public

 

The main idea of my piece is the transformation from private to public. At the beginning one hears a voice telling you to stop. I imagined this voice to be ones thoughts and therefore very private. The body in this piece is constantly moving from a quiet, peaceful place, where one does not hear any noises except for the thinking mind, to civilization with cars and bikes, and other, louder noises than before. The transportation is making the transformation more pictorial by actually using objects that move. Although the devices do not change, one can hear that the space is changing. There is a constant movement in the piece, which reaches its climax as the person reaches Niagara Falls. It gets louder the closer they come to the falls. In the end, one cannot hear anything but the overwhelming noise and the power of nature. Although the development of the piece is aimed to be from private to public, it comes back to a very private moment in the end. On one hand, there are thousands of people with you at the falls, so from this point of view it is not a private place. On the other hand, it is so loud that it is impossible to have a conversation or to discern any other noises than the water. The place is so overwhelming that one cannot even hear the little voice in their own head. My intention is to make the listener think about the ambiguity of privacy and publicity. Is anyone ever alone and have private moments or does our culture and society influence us to share every aspect of our lives? But aren’t we alone, and on our own at the same time, even if we are surrounded by thousands of peoples?