Occupy Karaoke
|
Multi media installation: wood, vinyl, video, soundshower, 2 screens, 2 microphones, amplifyer, 2013
Comissioned by the New Foundation of Visual Art Berlin |
For Occupy Karaoke the voices of the original speakers from the Occupy movement were replaced with pauses. During these pauses, visitors can, in accordance with the principles of Karaoke, themselfes become speakers and participants in this collective virtuosity and hear their speeches being amplified by the choir of voices.
The stage-like Karaoke installation adresses the physicality of the act of speaking. In the process, it refers to the technique of the human microphone, widely used at political gatherings in the US. |
The method involves repeating a speech word to the people behind you, thus "amplifying" the message. Hand signals express approval or disapproval of what is being said.
The human microphone came about in the 1970s and has been adopted and refined by the Occupy Movement in New York. It offers an opportunity to circumvent US laws on gatherings, which apply strict conditions to the use of amplifiers. |
