I Am Sitting in a Room

Negra40 2018 Season

I Am Sitting in a Room (1969) Alvin Lucier.

Recitation: Martín Virgili Electronics: Leandro Kurfirst Photographs: Gustavo Frittegotto

Thursday, April 26, 6:00 pm Museo de Arte Contemporáneo MAR Av. Félix U. Camet S/N, Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires

About the piece

I Am Sitting in a Room is a study of the acoustic conditions implicit in every space. It consists of recording a text within a given space, which is then recorded in real time. That recording is then played back and, in turn, re-recorded, and so on. In this way, one hears a progressive disintegration of the text’s intelligibility, while at the same time the resonant frequencies of the space that shaped it gradually emerge.

Text

I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any semblance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have.