Micro-Project 2: Crowd Sourced Art

What is the content of the work and who is creating it?

This piece is a soundscape (combined sounds) of the surroundings of Alvin’s friends wherever they are. We/He asked them for a 10 second recording of their surroundings no matter where they are and combined the sounds into a single audio piece.

Where does this work take place?

We asked for the sounds through the social media messaging app Whatsapp and as Alvin’s friends were scattered all over Singapore, we can say that the work took place across the island.

How does this work involve social interaction?

As Alvin had to ask for the sounds from his friends, he actually managed to reconnect with some of his friends whom he hasn’t spoken to in a long time and through the sounds, he’s able to be updated on their lives and know roughly what they are doing and how they are now.

As audiences who are strangers with these friends, we may not actively interact with them but through the sound piece, we can roughly deduce perhaps where they are and what they are doing and how are they as people, who they surround themselves with physically (e.g. that singing diva friend). It’s a glimpse into another’s life and in hearing sounds that we are familiar with, we bring in our own experiences to identify where they are, what kind of a person they are etc. (the sound of MRT doors closing=that person is waiting for or boarding a train) and this is a kind of interaction that may not be active or evident but which is as meaningful. I think that with social media, a lot of focus has been on the visuals, the photos and videos and not too much on sound which is just as important a medium for reconnection and connection.

How is your crowd-sourced project different from one that is created by a single artist/creator?

The aim of this project was to create a connection/reconnection between people (between Alvin and his friends or the audience and his friends). As a person can only be at a place at one time, this combined audio piece strings the experiences of people at different places doing different things together and allows the audience to experience a small piece of a stranger’s life.

Lei mentioned in class that the sound piece sounded like a single person’s story/life in a single person as there are MRT sounds and sounds of people singing and seems to tell the experience of one. I think that this is powerful in showing that a harmonious and cohesive work can be created by multiple artists. As MRT sounds, the sounds of friends singing etc. are sounds that we ourselves are familiar with, there’s a possibility of the audience reflecting on their own experiences upon hearing them. Hence, a sense of unity and connection would surface.  A singular person can only be at a place at one time and at limited areas in a period of time. A singular person can only offer this many experiences and with the time limit given, perhaps only a few similar ones, but with multiple artists, we have diversity and as a an artwork on its own and with the audience coming in to experience, we can then achieve a sort of harmony because of and despite this diversity.