This Is A Voice

Designed by Studioplusthree, the exhibition space for This Is A Voice at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum took visitors on an acoustic journey guided by line, light and sound.

Studioplusthree

This Is A Voice exhibition at Powerhouse Museum in Sydney explored the elusive nature of the voice “before and beyond language,” and the exhibition space similarly evoked an elusive quality. Through materials, illumination and physical forms, the subdued exhibition space had rhythm, shade and layering to take visitors on an “acoustic journey” guided by line, light and sound.

First held in London in 2016, This Is A Voice is a Wellcome Collection exhibition produced in partnership with Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences (MAAS). The exhibition explores the power, physiology and psychology of the voice with a display that intersects art and science. Sydneybased Studioplusthree designed the Sydney exhibition space and worked with local sound artists and vocalists to create specifically Australian content and to give their works physical presence.

Visitors entered the exhibition through a brightly lit foam-insulated anechoic chamber that absorbed reverberant sounds and drew attention to how materiality affects acoustics. The corridor opened to the first room, which introduced the diverse range of content contributing to a broad interpretation of “voice:” video and visuals, medical, scientific and technological objects, and artistic and literary works. Continuing along a softly lit passageway, the voice of Gadigal woman Lille Madden sang the Indigenous language spoken to the crew of the First Fleet when it landed in Sydney. The backlit muslin-covered studwork wall had a rhythm and intonation – like prosody in speech – that complemented and enhanced the acoustic experience.

This wall continued around much of the perimeter of the exhibition, providing what Studioplusthree directors Simon Rochowski and Joseph Byrne describe as a “responsive skin.” Through light and form it responded to objects and screens by providing a solid or translucent backdrop, peeling off to give solitary space and curving around corners to avoid hard junctions. Muslin screens within the space also created indistinct boundaries, allowing for glimpses through the exhibition and to “reflect the shades and ambiguities of the human voice,” Rochowski explains.

A series of pods in the open exhibition space suggested, but did not define, a route of circulation, and created compressed and expanded areas, positive and negative space and shades of light and dark. Each pod was designated to one artist to draw greater focus to the isolated work.

Outside the pods, sound works were projected on hanging screens with carefully considered visual and acoustic bleed and spill. “Each is modulated to create moments of focus or plurality within the overall soundscape,” Byrne says, and the effect brought awareness to individual pieces and how they work in composition. For example, when standing in front of Samuel Beckett’s frenetic Not I, Sonia Leber and David Chesworth’s acousmatic voice gave instructions behind, and Marcus Coates’ birdsong could be heard in the distance.

Studioplusthree collaborated with a number of Australian sound artists to create a visual, spatial and acoustic experience to suit the context of the show. Leber and Chesworth’s This is Before We Disappear From View represents themes of control and discipline, and was presented in a harshly lit white corridor in which there was nowhere to hide and only one direction to walk: toward the robotic voice. Lawrence English’s Utterance featured a wall of historical gramophone horns from the MAAS collection and asked visitors to consider how not all voices are heard as they don’t carry the same amplification.

This Is A Voice finished with two pieces in which visitors’ voices could in fact be heard as they contributed their voice to two ever-expanding soundscapes. Visitors could add a single note to Matthew Herbert’s intensifying Chorus; and express a desire or aspiration to become part of Lawrence English’s sound chandelier

A People’s Choir. In doing so, visitors’ voices were united with others and formed part of the rich acoustic journey for those who would experience the exhibition next. A

Above — Visitors’ recorded aspirations or wishes were added to Lawrence English’s sound chandelier A People’s Choir.

Above — The exhibition entrance was a foam-insulated anechoic chamber that absorbed reverberant sounds.Right — This is Before We Disappear From View by Sonia Leber and David Chesworth was presented in a harshly lit white corridor.

Opposite page, top — Lawrence English’s Utterance was broadcast through historical gramophone horns from the MAAS collection and invited visitors to consider how not all voices are heard equally.Opposite page, bottom — The exhibition featured a diverse range of content contributing to a broad interpretation of “voice,” and muslin screens allowed for glimpses through the exhibition.Right — The exhibition space suggested, but did not define, a route of circulation with compressed and expanded areas, positive and negative space and shades of light and dark.

Left — The transparency of the muslin screens reflect the ambiguities and shades of the human voice. Mikhail Karikis’ Promise Me and Sculpting Voice can be seen through the muslin screen.