Sound Polaroids
Scanner + Tonne
Institute of Contemporary Arts London UK October 1999
Cornish College of the Arts November 2001

Catalogue publication

Performances
1999 Montreal Canada
2000 Milano Italy
2002 Munich Germany
2003 Napoli Italy

Originally an installation as part of the Imaginaria ’99 show at the ICA in London, Scanner + Tonne took the work into another live context and continue to present the work internationally.

The artists invited people to suggest points of sound interest in the city of London and collated together the eclectic responses. Both images and sound were recorded at these locations and this data was then processed using software that converts the pixels of an image into sound, giving the user the ability to paint with sound and compose with light. Such a graphical approach suggested the use of digital images taken across the city as photographic sounds, or ‘sound polaroids.’

Installed in a gallery context as a dual screen and sound system work Scanner & Tonne then actively took the show on the road and created live performances following a similar system. Arriving a few days ahead of the performance they digitally record the city with sound and image, capturing a moment in time from an outsiders viewpoint. This collected data is then transformed, arranged and processed into the final presentation before the public. Every particle of sound and image that is picked up, the signs of the city, is incorporated into the show, projected around the space, generating a new scenery, formulating a new context, imaginary, evocative, yet familiar to the local audience. What they experience is another type of view: the city seen by the artists.