Istanbul

2005

9th International Istanbul Biennial
Istanbul, Turkey

During my month in Turkey, I spent around 5 - 8 hours a day walking around the city of Istanbul ... recording. I captured nearly 5 days worth of audio recordings: modern pop music (usually American 80's music), old men playing checkers, cars passing, tourists, beggars in the streets, venders peddling their goods, what seemed like ominous calls to prayer, the famous transit system (Istanbul boasts the oldest Trolley system in the world), the sound of the Bosphorus River lapping on the shore and mostly the sound of thousands of different languages from all over the world - all converging to this middle point on the earth. Ancient rituals, next to modern plastic. Istanbul stands as the most memorable trip of my life.

The theme of the biennial was the city of Istanbul itself, appropiately named "Istanbul." I wanted to share these audio jewels in little intimate ways, emphasizing the beauty of such a diverse city/country, melding effortlessly as it has for thousands of years. I planted speakers planted all over the Biennial randomly playing snippets of these noises. One would simply bump into a speaker and hear a little piece of what is already happening in real-time outside the Biennial’s walls. Because of this, the piece existed no where in particular, yet everywhere with the exhbition space.

What you're hearing with this audio file is a small compilation of the many snippets. In the biennial I exhibited over 3 hours of material - this piece (particular to this website) is only 6 minutes.

All sound files on this website are abbreviated versions of the actual installation.

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