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Wynne's approach to sound pollution was to go for the jugular, or its equivalent in the ear, in a confrontational work which relied on the paradox that we all in fact ignore alarms despite their supposed function in our lives. Ed
Baxter |
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John
Wynne's The Sound of Sirens was exhibited by Copenhagen's now
closed Sound Gallery in 1997. Consisting of 25 speakers set within
the ground of the city's main square, the officially sanctioned Gallery
operated through extremely exposed and public circumstances by creating
a potential sound field of 900 square metres. Working solely with
warning signals and alarms, Wynne's project became a site for debate
between aesthetic value and the rights to public space, forcing sound
and its presentation to become a civic and governmental issue.
For what became immediately apparent was that positioning sound within
the public realm brings to question the occupation of that space.
That Wynne's work was consequently shut down by the City Council due
to the fact that people were 'confused and frightened' by the work highlights
the degree to which sound may radically infringe upon public space,
and challenge civic notions of an ethics of display and the rights to
occupation. Being positioned within the main square of the city,
which is designated a site of gathering for political, cultural and
local groups to give free expression to public debate, issues and arguments, The Sound of Sirens remained an essentially distressing work.
Claiming it to be art with aesthetic value was not enough to prevent
the work's closure.
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