always welcome, 2017

Motion sensitive soundinstallation with textscript, speaker, metal rack, prepared arne jacobsen chair mod. 3107, thera rubber band, arduino device
Speaker: Francis P. Brady

The soundinstallation » always welcome « metaphorically approaches the ambivalent attributes of a chair, considered as a placeholder for entrance procedures.

1955 famous architect Arne Jacobsen designed the “3107” series chair with the ambition to combine highly optical and ergonomic comfort with excellence practicability.  “3107” has been copied countless times and can be found in many public institutions, shops and spaces all over the world. By it’s ultimative coverage it has become a popular element in public space defining a specific atmosphere of ambivalence which all of these places have in common: Being visually inviting on the first sight but following a highly purposeful goal in the end.

In the sound installation » always welcome « a second hand version of the 3107 prepared with a red rubber band around its seat, serves as a symbolic object that questions the rules & conditions a chair demands from its user. On the one hand, a chair can offer you a place to sit and rest. On the other hand it might become an unbearable restriction to anyone who is forced to remain seated.

Approaching the strapped speaker, a PIR sensor detects the visitors movement and instantly plays back the sound of a male voice that slightly switches its tone from an inviting „you‘re welcome“ to more and more forcing sentences like „sit down“ and „…you know what?… W-A-I-T..“. With this sound layer the work expands its ambivalent character into the field of language and its option for restrictive strategies.

Audio Snippet from the sound installation “always welcome”. Speaker: Francis P. Brady