Speaker A is a permanent sound installation that creates impact with the precise manipulation of directional sound as an auditory, ‘sculptural’ presence. The work includes three distinct audio tracks, installed at specific locations within the plaza. Specialized directional speakers are integrated into the ceiling panels, producing a highly controlled sound “column” that visitors walk into and out of at will. Customized paving on the ground plane visually identifies the location of the work.
The audio tracks are a series of collaborative texts/stories, gleaned from fourteen writers from around the city that, when taken together, weave narratives that define lives lived in proximity: restlessness and care. Each speaker reveals a randomized program of short narratives that span past, present and future: the work invites listeners to explore the ideas of Restless Futures (Speaker A), Speculative Pasts (Speaker B) and Instructions for Care in the present (Speaker C). Owing to programming by Remy Siu and responsive sound design by Antoine Bédard, each speaker retains a constantly shifting presence; each listener experiences a unique sequence of narrative and sound.
The narratives are drawn from emerging and established writers, including Lorna Brown, Lili Robinson, Amber Dawn, Aryo Khakpour, James Long, Maiko Yamamoto, Whess Harman, Amiel Gladstone, Jus-tine A. Chambers, Cease Wyss, Vanessa Kwan, Hiromi Goto, Faith Sparrow-Crawford, and Tim Carlson.
The use of sound relates to the artist team’s interest in creating experiences in public space that draw attention to ideas, histories and subjectivities that lie beneath the surface of the city: quite literally the things we can’t see. Each sound work is part of a greater narrative, each text building on a compo-sition that cannot be encompassed in one person’s experience alone. The work is expected to evolve as a presence at the site over time, to stand as both a record of this place, in this moment—many of the narratives were written in 2020, in the midst of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in many ways reflect that unprecedented experience—while looking forward and back with speculation, anxiety and hope.