sound installation for the holiday (Christmas) season, done first in Bergamo, later in other more limited contexts
Together with Gak Sato, we attached sound transducers to the large windows of expensive lingerie stores. The installation was activated only in the early evening, to prevent it from driving the people working in the stores completely crazy. The sounds transmitted from the windows had a somewhat holographic effect when heard by passers-by. The transducers (which are quite hard to find these days) transform the entire surface of the object to which they are attached into a loudspeaker. Unlike normal speakers, in this case the sound does not seem to come from a specific location, but rather floats over and around listeners, conveying a much more “live” sensation.
The projects were commissioned by municipalities and merchants’ associations for the holiday season. I think they were expecting Jingle Bells or some cheerful Yule melodies, but what they got was the sound of newborn babies loudly crying, which I thought was very appropriate for Christmas. And for lingerie… buy this, wear it, see what happens… parenthood!
The sounds were so realistic that several passers-by actually called the police, in the dark winter evening, insisting that there were babies trapped inside the lingerie store after closing hours. There was even an article about the trapped baby reports in the local newspaper.
One of the stores looked quite like this.
