Andrew
Stones Tell
Us Everything 2003
On-site links:
Art (Installation) Index
Andrew Stones - Infro
8-channel audio installation:
Macintosh G4 with 8-channel audio diffusion system.
8-channel digital
audio loop - duration 2hrs;
Also: Artist's limited edition double audio CD.
Friday Evening Discourses have been given at the Royal Institution since 1826. Tell Us Everything features a female voice reading the titles of every Discourse from 3 February 1826 ('Caoutchouc') to 28 June 1994 ('Is Human Evolution Over?').
In the original installation the titles were heard alternately on left and right loudspeakers. These were situated in a narrow viewing area where visitors encounter Michael Faraday's laboratory, preserved behind a transparent partition (photo, above).
With all pauses for breath removed, the recitation of over 3,300 titles lasts around 2 hours.
The ambient/incidental background includes sounds collected around the Institution corridors, and in the well-known Main Lecture Theatre. In the original work this emanated from the ceiling of the basement corridor leading to and from the Museum (and the zone of the speaking voice), with some elements seeming to travel up and down the corridor.