The Loud Self (2012)

Sound installation, transistor radio, radio transmitter, computer connected to the internet, dimensions variable.

Part of the collective exhibition “Reassembling the Self” by Susan Aldworth. Vane Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Alessandro Altavilla’s sound installation, The loud self, explores auditory hallucinations, phenomena frequently described by people affected by schizophrenia. These hallucinations are often heard as real voices, creating a concrete inner dialogue between the self and other selves. In extreme cases this causes subjects to feel themselves in a state of paranoia or even persecution. The loud selfsearches for people tweeting the phrase “I heard voices” on the internet, which are then spoken aloud by a computer synthesised voice. This voice is broadcast to a transistor radio in the gallery. This work can also be heard every night from midnight until 1am during the period of the exhibition on an internet radio programme at culturelabradio.ncl.ac.uk.

Video documentation available soon.