The work YOUYOUYOU2 explored noise pollution and the collective loss of individuality within urban settings. It aims to critique the overwhelming sensory and psychological pressures of today's urban environments while simultaneously inviting participants to reflect on their role in creating and perpetuating these conditions. The integration of surveillance technology, such as cameras further tied into themes of performativity and self-awareness in an age of constant visibility.
Set-Up:
- Single room sound exhibition for one visitor
- 2x projectors + HDMI cable, 3x Vocal Studio Mics + 2x Soundshield + XLRs (long), USB mixing desk, 2x webcam, Ableton PUSH 2, D9 Plexiglass walls
- Duration approximately 5–10 minutes
Kai:...especially during stressful times I found myself always blocking out the sound while in the city and many people seem to have headphones in their ears. It’s like we can’t stand the collective sound we are creating. This work was designed to encourage reflection on one’s own impact within such an environment. It explores how we become part of the city, contributing to its noise, striving to make ourselves visible and heard. Yet, in doing so, we inevitably blur into the overwhelming mass of noise and thought that defines the urban experience.
Sensory experience seems to play a central role in your installation. What motivated your decision to immerse participants in a pitch-black space where they become both creators and subjects of chaotic noise and light?
Kai: ...forcing participants to navigate the experience actively rather than passively. This introduces a foreign dimension of engagement. visitors must uncover the installation’s meaning through their actions, as their participation dictates the unfolding experience. I loved that people could choose to remain silent and still for twenty minutes, yet nobody did, which I believe speaks to human nature. It compels us to act, even in uncertainty. The brightness which makes the filmed projection of oneself invisible again, at the end, symbolizes a loss of individuality, consumed by the overwhelming noise and light—representing loudness of existence and the chaos. A key thread for me was the loss of control. At first, the participants have agency, but the inevitable feedback loops strip them of it. Once initiated, the chain of sounds escalates beyond their grasp, reflecting the unstoppable momentum of life. The first move participants make is crucial—it pulls them from darkness, forces them to confront themselves, and leads them toward something larger and more uncontrollable.
The layering of participant-generated sounds and the progressive amplification creates a metaphor for feedback loops. How do you conceptualize this looping process as a reflection of human behavior in urban spaces or modern systems?
Kai: The loops reflect the inevitability and accumulation of human action in collective spaces, in spaces where individuality is constantly at odds with systems larger than ourselves. I wanted to explore the idea that we feel alive only when doing, speaking, experiencing, or creating. Yet, no matter what we contribute, our individual expressions merge into a collective “wall of sound.”