Talking Clock Choir, 2022
Four-channel sound installation, PA speakers, stucco, audio cable, modulated talking clock public service announcements every half hour.
Duration: 24 hours
Talking Clock Choir features four commercial PA speakers that broadcast a series of time-telling compositions every half hour. Each announcement highlights the artist’s voice in chorus with a rotating cast of modulated “talking clocks” derived from outmoded telephone-based services around the world where recorded human voices narrate the time in real-time. The bass-driven compositions also include Amy, the first AI-generated voice used to replace human time-telling reports. The combined “choir” voices punctuate and fold together the past, present and future while reminding us of the invisible labour required to uphold temporal standards.
Spatialized throughout the gallery, each speaker’s 100-foot audio cable weaves through and frames the space’s infrastructure – a site-specific intervention customized to each exhibition space. Organized chronologically by time zone, Talking Clock Choir profiles 19 voices from:
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA (UTC-10), Anchorage, Alaska, USA (UTC-08); San Franscico, California, USA (UTC-07); Colorado Springs, USA (UTC-06); Regina, Saskatchewan, CA (UTC-06); Northwest Indiana, USA (UTC-05); Washington, D.C., USA (UTC-04); Ottawa, Ontario, CA (UTC-04); Santiago, Chile (UTC-04); Greenwich, Britian (UTC±00); Brussels, Belgium (UTC+02); Hamburg, Germany (UTC+02); Borås, Sweden (UTC+02); Pretoria, South Africa (UTC+02); Moscow, Russia (UTC+03); Beijing, China (UTC+8); Tsukuba, Japan (UTC+09); Sydney, Australia (UTC+10); Lower Hutt, New Zealand (UTC+12).
Sound Engineer: Ashton Price
Photo credits: Alison Postma
