LO-04- Sound Art

Don Ritter’s Intersection. 2019 (reconstruction). 

This installation takes place in a completely dark room with a light lock door and plays audio of 8 lanes of moving traffic sounds. The installation interacts with visitors walking through the room by having a car screeching to a stop noise when the visitor walks past it. If a visitor stands still for a few seconds, then they will hear cars smashing into the paused car. The installation uses infra-red sensors, feedback technology, and 8 or 16 channel audio to create the sounds of traffic. 

This work is inspiring in how it addresses the power of simulation with technology and the generation of creating hypersensitivity to sound with the subtraction of sight. Arthur Kroker mentions how “we are always being smashed by the freeway traffic of high technology”. By having the high intensity audio interact with the visitor’s walking Ritter creates a fully immersive space that reacts to human motion. Ritter manifests a commentary on the advancing speed of growing technology portrayed through the speeding traffic as well as rendering the visitor’s blind in the dark space. The dichotomy of the installation lies in its dependency on these forms of advancing technologies to portray the sounds and interaction with the visitors, and at the same time is depicting ideas of the intimidating pace of growing technology.