Synopsis: LOL is a site-specific sonic intervention delivered through the public address system of Middlesbrough’s CCTV surveillance network. Watch an excerpt here https://vimeo.com/763079960
Diffusing an electroacoustic piece through the public address of the CCTV surveillance system was quite exhilarating! This sound art experiment LOL was coordinated by The Auxiliary (Anna Byrne and Liam Slevin) and the Middlesbrough Art Weekender curator Kypros Kyprianou, with the Middlesbrough surveillance management. This project was possible because of the strong partnership that Anna and Liam from the Auxiliary have nurtured with Middlesbrough council. The theme of the 5th edition of Middlesbrough Art Weekender was ‘power POWER’. LOL was one of many events and exhibitions in the Public Space of Middlesbrough.
The heavily charged political content of the piece LOL was concealed under the pretext of making sound art; if it had not been for the Middlesbrough Art Weekender, would have this ever been authorised? Never! ART can be a useful umbrella.
With this work we are hijacking political slogans - DETOURNEMENT - the voice of our leaders to make a political statement. LEVELLING UP the once abandoned Conservative policy is figured prominently in the audio montage, "We intend to unite and level up across the whole of our United Kingdom”, and then pitched down into granular oblivion.
The curator Kypros Kyprianou thought that the work had an air of pre-1989 fall of the Soviet Union when the use of public address was more present and effective on a more regular basis. Unfortunately, in Middlesbrough, the public address speakers were not all operational as we discovered on the first day of broadcast. How often do the CCTV PA speakers get used in Great Britain? CCTVs are mostly watching us, tracking our behaviours, capturing our movements, and listening; but they are very rarely emitting, transmitting aural messages to us.
POVERTY. COULD BE. POVERTY. COULD BE. THEY’RE LAUGHING.
Public address speakers do require maintenance. On the first day LOL was due to start its performance at 2:00 pm, I was with another Sound Art Brighton artist Bob aka A/B Smith who was presenting his interactive sound installation ‘ICU’, a critical comment on modern surveillance technology, for Middlesbrough Art Weekender. We were both positioned in the town centre by the former House of Fraser - now a disused department store - ready to record the first broadcast with our digital recorders. Kersten Glandien - the artistic director of Sound Art Brighton - was positioned at the Exchange Square, ready to document the event and record from another location. But no sound came out of the speakers. After some waiting, I decided to call the surveillance team. They were encountering technical issues and were working “to get the audio working onto the microphones”. We kept on waiting for it to be fixed and so remained positioned at the same location. Eventually we heard the piece in the distance, so after a second call, we found out that there was “a problem with the cabling”, but the piece was now playing at the bus station nearby and other sites around the city. We rushed to the bus station to capture the broadcast; it was very exciting to hear the work for the first time on-site in the town. In the end LOL was played all over town for an extended period, from Thursday until Sunday.
PUBLIC RESPONSE. Passers-by were looking up, searching for the audio source, others speculated that the CCTV network was being hacked in real-time, as I was recording with my digital recorder. “Shoppers left spooked after 'Boris Johnson sounding' voice is randomly played in town centre”; others conveniently ignored the sound. The sonic intervention, a protest without bodies, was bordering on social disruption, if not coordinated and facilitated as it was. Members of the public commented on Twitter, one person declaring: “I imagine when they catch the people responsible, it’ll be jail time”.
Working with a citywide Public Address System was a rare experience and a unique opportunity as a sound artist. The high-pitched beeping signal of the pedestrian crossing was blending triumphantly into the piece.
Photo by Rachel Deakin . Middlesbrough Art Weekender 2022.
Photo by Rachel Deakin . Middlesbrough Art Weekender 2022.