credit: Susannah Kelly

credit: Susannah Kelly

The Limerick-Toronto Subway Line

Performance

SpiritStore Arts Café, Limerick, Ireland. 25 September 2009.

Description

This site-specific electroacoustic performance was part of an ongoing intervention in a disused building, refurbished as an arts café.

The piece was based on sonic memory, and how sounds can be used to create a fictional place. Two sounds were merged. The first was a recording of the Yonge line on the Toronto subway system. The second was the “live” sound of the busy street corner outside the café.

The “trick” was that the microphone feed of the local soundscape was fed through delay lines. If a heavy vehicles passed outside the window, the rumblings could be heard inside in real-time, and then re-experienced a few seconds later.

This created various acoustical illusions, including the feeling that the room was time-shifted from its surroundings, and the impression that the room had turned itself inside out.

Thanks

Thanks to Marilyn Lennon for facilitating this work.