Brandon LaBelle (USA)

Space and music composition share similar strategies defined by marking
limits: with space this surfaces through the demarcation of borders,
the distinction of private from public, and the formulation of a
“psychological infrastructure” which sees what is inside different from
what is outside, determining what is allowed to move freely across
these related boundaries. With music, such strategies of marking limits
appears through compositional structures that decide what is correct
and what is incorrect, from the right note to the bad one, from the
correct form of playing to the incorrect form, all of which come to
impose a sense of values onto the accidental and ambiguous field of
sound. Engaging with boundaries, duck duck goose invites the networking
of different gestures, sounds, and spaces to undo the understanding of
what belongs and what doesn’t, spatially and sonically. Spending three
days in the city of Berlin, an audio work is made from field recordings
and their manipulation, which acts generally as a kind of “diary” to
share with visitors. Visitors are invited to listen to the work through
headphones, occupying chairs placed in a circle within the space; in
addition, they are asked to respond to the work by blowing a whistle
every time they feel a change has occurred – from pitch changes to
textural changes, ambient moods to the sudden appearance of new sounds,
each becomes a question to be answered by the individual
visitor-listener. Visitors come to form an audible addition to the
work, while creating their own collective ensemble. This ensemble and
their playing are further amplified through a set of speakers mounted
outside the space, on the street, some 25-metres from the entrance,
after passing through computer-modification, looping the audio work
back to its origin within the city.