I Want You To Know & School

Sound installation and LED display Commissioned by Whitechapel Gallery - 2007-2008

How do we locate the personal within the institutional workings of a school? Does a school have a voice?

After spending some time as artist in residence at Langdon Park in Tower Hamlets I became fascinated by the school’s public address system. It seemed to highlight the impersonal and functional aspects of an institution yet each announcement linked the disparate buildings and people at that given moment.

In June 2007 I installed a tannoy system in the stairways and corridors of the Whitechapel Gallery, weaving together real and imagined announcements contributed by students and staff. The multi channel sound installation and LED display relocated the physical and emotional landscape of the school within the walls of the gallery.

In 2008 two editions: School (12 min. DVD) and I Want You to Know (20 min. sound CD) were produced as a record of the project.