Recorded October 15, 2011 Field Fest, Brussels, Belgium

In this new series of works, entitled “In Place”, I wanted to address the process of what transpires when I go to a place to make a recording. Of course, I come away with a recording of something. I've made my catch of material or perhaps a stand-alone composition or panoramic still life. But more than this I take back with me the experience of spending time in a place, absorbing that place in all its details: its sights, its sounds, how on emotional and intellectual levels I interacted with this place. When I am back home listening to the recordings a rush of memories accompanies them, much like Proust’s famous biscuit in his cup of tea unleashing a torrent of recollections from his childhood. My mind wanders beyond the recordings and their subtleties. I begin to think about the place, how I felt being there, what that place was about in terms of its social context, its function; how people reacted to me being there, to what my mind was thinking while I was making the recordings — all this mental and emotional material existing alongside the snazzy sound files I’d managed to make with all my shiny equipment.

So I decided, why not just write a text about this process, about my time spent in a place making a recording? And the text itself would be the field recording, with my reading the text a presentation of the place. My words and the emotions they convey... will this reveal more about the place I’ve spent time in than an actual sound recording? Or just something different? What does it mean to spend time in a place and just being there? Not doing anything there. Not making a recording. Not taking notes. Not making photos or doing anything at all but just being there?

“In Place” is also to a large extent influenced by my reading of the works of Henri Lefebrve, in particular his two books The Production Of Space and Rhythmanalysis. Lefebvre dissects the issue of space, what constitutes a space, how we can create a space, what the social elements are of a space and how we interact with a space on these different planes. The daily rhythms of life, the dynamics of time passing and spaces changing over time, both on the grand historical scale from erection to ruin, as well as on the daily level all shape how space is formed and experienced. And these are precisely the issues I want to explore in spending time in different spaces, investigating them, experiencing them and then reflecting about them. “In Place” exposes what remains at the juncture between the space's physical presence and the presence of my voice, embodying my experience of that space on all its planes.

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