CAN YOU LISTEN  ?

Created in collaboration with Monica Haller, Nicholas Knouf, and Jonathan Zorn,  Can you listen to the same river twice? is a listening station that invites the participant to bring their ear close to the river. By amplifying the water and using its variations to modulate the continuously changing sound, the river tells the narrative. The listener’s sense of hearing is heightened to hear a steel foundry across the shore, a voice singing, a foghorn.

Can you listen to the same river twice? is designed to focus our aural attention on an omnipresent feature of the Twin Cities, a historic body of water that few of us engage with directly. On the concrete pad of a working port she places individual wooden decks complete with sound jacks and headphones. These structures, designed by architect Molly Reichert, invite us to adjust the position of our bodies to better concentrate on the task of listening. In the darkness of night, this shift from vertical to horizontal opens up a sensibility—disempowering the sense of sight to privilege that of hearing. Reclining on these chairs, we physically bend an ear closer to the river.

PROJECT CREDIT

PROJECT TEAM: Monica Haller, Nick Knouf, Molly Reichert, Jonathan Zorn

DETAILS

Can You Listen To The Same River Twice?
Northern Spark
St. Paul, MN, 2013