Schizophonia [= that which makes dogs bark at speakers, children look for the man behind the box and savages demand their captured souls returned.]

A project existing both as a performance and a video piece, investigating the phenomenon of 'schizophonia '. Coined in the 1960s by Canadian composer R. Murray Schaefer, the term "schizophonia" describes the act of detaching a sound from its original context. Made possible by technical media, now an everyday procedure. In his lecture performance Erik Bünger examines elements of pop culture in the light of schizophonia, drawing parallels between dubbing and demonic possession or exorcism, for example, or describing the wave of posthumous duets in music videos as necromancy.

Focussing on the perception of disasters, conspiracy theories, and religious cults by creating a miniature world where significant and often catastrophic events have taken place, O'dell leaves us with a skewed world view teeming with obsession, paranoia and loss of rationale. New Worship consists of three imposing towers that look like gigantic public address systems or wireless telephone masts. They are broadcasting content falling somewhere between a religious sermon and a political manifesto. It makes numerous biblical references, suggesting a political meeting or religious revival.

Through 2001, Fast recorded hundreds of hours of CNN presenters speaking directly into the camera. He fed the footage into a computer and cut it up into words and syllables. From this database, he constructed an 18-minute monologue, which is delivered word by word in a fast, jolting fashion, by individual news presenters. Fast’s presenters address their viewer in a manner in which news programs both foster and feed off the neuroses of their audiences. As well as being incisive, the work is also very funny. The slick and slimy anchors are made to utter sentiments quite beyond their sensibilities, but appear absolutely unruffled, their manicures and fake tans always immaculate.

Concrete parabolic air-defence 'Sound Mirrors' were built at various sites on the UK coast between the First and Second World War. Their purpose was to function as an early warning system - a primitive acoustic version of Radar, to enable listeners to locate the sounds of attacking aircraft and ships. Experiences of danger place individuals in heightened states of physiological awareness, increasing sensitivity of the nervous system to a broad range of environmental cues... Human anxiety physically manifests as early warning systems - which dramatically extend perceptions in terms of distance, subtlety and bandwidth. With the onset of tactical obsolescence these systems are either abandoned or dismantled, leaving a remarkable architectural legacy, above and below ground.

Video by Barry Hale, concept and location research by Joe Banks, 1997.