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WISH
YOU WERE HERE A site for interactivity and reception, "Wish You Were Here" is a collective soundscape of audio greeting cards intended to be experienced within the hands of participants through physical and aural sampling. Our sounds are of field recordings, fragmented and manipulated to reinterpret the conventional notion of a sentiment and sense of place in the model of a greeting card. Re-contextualizing recorded material within this format places limits— including time, compression, and availability—while initiating an accessible, portable, and participatory narrative. Participants are able to browse and select cards, to then open and play, by interacting with the card display racks within the installation. Thereby, contributing to an on-going experiential recording within the space itself. Similar to a recording booth within a radio station, where sound props would be used to produce a soundscape to accompany a radio show or oral narrative such as“War of the Worlds” by Orson Wells, “Wish You Were Here” creates a soundscape that exists both as a moment of individual and collective “listening and responding” to cards within the space, and as an audio recording that documents the theatrical play of interaction. Systems of exchange become evident through
the selective re-authoring and re-playing of these sounds, quoting a theoretical
giver and receiver-- absent and present. Through the opening and closing
of cards on display, the gesture of a greeting becomes amplified, defining
a space that is, at once, personal and public, intuitive and mechanical. Artists: Colin Asquith, Terry Nauheim, Jennifer Schmidt
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