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Title:  Sound Polaroids Artist:  Scanner & Tonne Label:  Bip-Hop Format:  CD Price:  € 15.50   Mp3 samples: none

Title Description:
"At first the sound which accompanies the installation images seems prosaic - street noises, the chimes of Big Ben. After a bit, other, stranger sounds can be detected, whooshing away like the cliches or 1960s electronic music..it is a very good place to sneak a glimpse into a brave and very strange new world."- Financial Times
Winners of the Imaginaria '99 art show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London with this project, Scanner + Tonne present an adaptation of the work for CD.
Originally an installation, the artists invited people to suggest points of sound interest in the city of London and collated together the eclectic responses, such as:
"Mind the gap, please"
Trafalqar square
"At the 3rd stroke, the time sponsored by Acurist"
A double-decker bus when it's stopped at a stop light - it "surges" and "heaves"
Both images and sound were recorded at these locations and this data was then processed using software that converts the pixels of an image into sound, giving the user the ability to paint with sound and compose with light. Such a graphical approach
suggested the use of digital images taken across the city as photographic sounds, or 'sound polaroids.' Using a database of the original source material Scanner & Tonne then actively took the show on the road and created live performances following a similar system. Arriving a few days ahead of the performance they digitally record the city with sound and image, capturing a moment in time from an outsiders viewpoint. This collected data is then transformed, arranged and processed into the final presentation before the public. Every particle of sound and image that is picked up, the signs of the city, is incorporated into the show, projected around the space, generating a new scenery, formulating a new context, imaginary, evocative, yet familiar to the local audience. What they experience is another type of view: the city seen by the artists.
What you hear is only a record of temporary moments. An additional adaptation by New York based sound artist Stephen Vitiello offers an insight into the sounds of Grand Central Station within the frame of this project.

Vital Review: