in portfolio

Shhh… Sounds in space, V&A, London

2004_va_shhh

“Shhh… was an ‘invisible exhibition’ which took you on a sonic journey through the V&A. From the magnificent Raphael Gallery to the grand Victorian stairwells, a diverse group of leading artists and musicians – Cornelius, David Byrne, Elizabeth Fraser, Faultline, Gillian Wearing, Jane and Louise Wilson, Jeremy Deller, Leila Arab, Roots Manuva and Simon Fisher Turner – created unique responses to the objects and spaces in the museum.”

(from the V&A website)

This was the first project I was assigned, in my first week on the job. My involvement was limited: mostly, testing content and infra-red sensors that would trigger the tracks when you entered a specific room.

Yet I am surprised this format – a curated playlist, a musical tour within the galleries and other spaces of a museum – hasn’t taken off and become more popular. It was thrilling to hear Roots Manuva rap in the gilded, ostentatious Norfolk House Music Room. Or to hear David Byrne’s experiments in a Victorian toilet…

a couple of reviews:
The BBC’s DNA collective http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A2654552
Frieze Magazine http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/shhh/