MATILDE MEIRELES

X Marks the Spot is a multi-layered and playful participatory project assembled by tagging specific telecommunication boxes in the city of Belfast, those emitting an audible drone (continuous hum).

The project is manifested through three different modalities: an online web-archive (modality 1); graphic design interventions in public space in the form of a poster (modality 2); and OFF-SITE, a series of reinterpretations of the multi-modal materials collected throughout the project (modality 3). Each mode provides not only a different experience of the work, but also a different type of access to the project and a different form of listening. Since it is unlikely that most people will experience all three modalities, each one was designed to stand on its own.

NOTES: (modality 2) Users could augment their experience of each tagged location by scanning the QR Code on the (ephemeral) posters. (modality 3) OFF-SITE events live beyond the digital archive in the form of exhibitions, concerts, etc.

(modality 3)

OFF-SITE seeks to explore the different enriching aspects that each of the levels of interactions and collaborations can add to the project. The tagging process ended in 2019, but the archival materials gathered will continue to be revisited and reinterpreted. These results will maintain the archive active, while reframing ideas on documentation, temporality and site.

Research

X Marks the Spot was included in Matilde's journal article Extended Phonography: Experiencing place through sound, a multi-sensorial approach published on Organised Sound, Cambridge University Press.

Abstract: In this article I propose the use of extended phonography as an integrated practice which offers the opportunity to overcome the fragmentation of the senses inherent in field recording. I outline how listening across practices empowers both recordist and audience to experience a richer engagement with the recorded environment. Furthermore, I introduce new forms of articulating the experience of place and its relationship to sound, by highlighting the conceptual framework of two of my contrasting works, the site/context-specific projects Moving Still: 1910 Avenida Atlântica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and X Marks the Spot. These works, both artistic and discursive, are a direct outcome of my practice of extended phonography. Through them, I attempt to address the need for a vocabulary that mirrors the new aesthetics arising in sound art and further expand the practice of field recording.