Talk To Me - De Heygraeff Audiotour is a public art installation that takes the audience into the world of four ‘other-than-human’ residents at De Heygraeff in The Netherlands. In this audio tour you can listen to fictional conversations with Marko the Douglas fir, Leela the mole, Janneke the boom barrier and Martijn the street light. 

 

This project was created as part of the 3-month artist residency ‘Re-creatie Reinarde’. During this residency, myself and collaborator Anne Fehres, lived and worked in the unique context of a care facility for adults with severe disabilities. The ultimate aim of this project is to provide a greater connection between the ‘inner’ environment of this care facility and the ‘outer’ recreation area just outside the facility fence. 

 

Although close in proximity, these two worlds traditionally have little crossover. We have structured this audio tour to encourage not just a physical movement of people between these inner and outer spaces, but also an intellectual movement. Through the various absurdist, fictional dialogues in the audio tour, there was an aim to blend humour, philosophy and insight into the disability context. Indirectly, each of the conversations touches upon themes and ideas which are sensitive to the diverse perspectives on disability.

 

Responding to our research, observations and discussions during the residency period, each conversation has been inspired by insights through thinking about disability from the standpoint of the 'outsider', the care-worker, the family member, the care organisation and the disabled.

 

All the tracks for the audio tour are recorded in Dutch and were designed to be listened to on location, through scanning a QR Code which takes you to the project website (see here). The audio works are also viewable as video works with English subtitles, filmed on location (see below).

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For the best experience of the audio tour on location, you can participate in a full immersive sound experience using the ‘Echoes’ app on your smartphone. Using the app you will hear the five conversations listed on the map, but also a variety of custom made soundscapes placed in the areas between and around each location. As you travel around the area, these soundscape featuring re-worked field recordings from De Heygraeff area will be triggered by the GPS of your phone, changing in volume and content to match your movements through the physical environment.