Janet Cardiff

"While listening to a concert you are normally seated in front of the choir, in traditional audience position. With this piece I want the audience to be able to experience a piece of music from the viewpoint of the singers. Every performer hears a unique mix of the piece of music. Enabling the audience to move throughout the space allows them to be intimately connected with the voices. It also reveals the piece of music as a changing construct. As well I am interested in how sound may physically construct a space in a sculptural way and how a viewer may choose a path through this physical yet virtual space.
I placed the speakers around the room in an oval so that the listener would be able to really feel the sculptural construction of the piece by Tallis. You can hear the sound move from one choir to another, jumping back and forth, echoing each other and then experience the overwhelming feeling as the sound waves hit you when all of the singers are singing.†- Janet Cardiff

In this artwork, made by Janet Cardiff in 2001, she reworks Spem in Alium Nunquam Habui ("Hope In Any Other Have I None") created in the XVI century by Thomas Tallis. Every speaker represent one of the forty voices in the music (there is 40 speakers).

The oval installation of the speakers allows the visitors to walk around the spacious room and stop near any speaker and listen to any of the voices and then change speaker and so change person singing. you could also seat on the many benches in the middle of the room and you could find under the benches some headphones.

She created this because she wanted to "climb inside the music" as she created a space where she could enter the music, either by listening to the piece, or by going towards each and every voice.

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