The Paradise Institute
Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller
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2001, Wood, theater seats, video projection, headphones and mixed media, 118 X 698 X 210 inches, (299.72 X 1772.92 X 533.4 cm), Courtesy of the artists and Luhring Augustine, New York
2001, Wood, theater seats, video projection, headphones and mixed media, 118 X 698 X 210 inches, (299.72 X 1772.92 X 533.4 cm), Courtesy of the artists and Luhring Augustine, New York
In The Paradise Institute, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller employ a recording technology known as binaural audio to create the intoxicating, dislocating experience of viewing a short film from within another person’s head. The film itself is a spooky, at times humorous and unsettling series of episodes relating to a man in a hospital and the nurse attending him. The scenes are strung together with the logic of a dream: things fit together, but they don’t necessarily add up. The illusion of seeing and hearing everything from the anonymous and silent filmgoer’s point of view adds to the confusion. Is this one story, or a series of fantasies in someone’s mind? Is “The Paradise Institute” the hospital seen on the screen, or the theater, or neither? Cardiff and Miller tantalize viewers with questions, but keep the answers mysteriously to themselves.
Unlike normal stereo recording, binaural audio uses high quality microphones placed in the ears of a dummy head to record and reproduce the full, spatial experience perceived by the human ear. Played back on high quality headphones, the resulting effect of sound mimics daily experience far more persuasively than traditional recording techniques. In Cardiff and Miller’s hands, binaural audio becomes a highly effective tool for creating the illusion of hearing from inside the head. Building on binaural audio recording, their works utilize additional layers of sound to immerse the audience in narratives presented in the form of installations and sound sculptures, and Cardiff’s audio and video “walks,” on which Miller collaborates. The Paradise Institute was originally created for the Canadian Pavilion of the 2001 Venice Biennale in Italy, where it received a Biennale di Venezia Special Award and a Bennesse Prize.
Unlike normal stereo recording, binaural audio uses high quality microphones placed in the ears of a dummy head to record and reproduce the full, spatial experience perceived by the human ear. Played back on high quality headphones, the resulting effect of sound mimics daily experience far more persuasively than traditional recording techniques. In Cardiff and Miller’s hands, binaural audio becomes a highly effective tool for creating the illusion of hearing from inside the head. Building on binaural audio recording, their works utilize additional layers of sound to immerse the audience in narratives presented in the form of installations and sound sculptures, and Cardiff’s audio and video “walks,” on which Miller collaborates. The Paradise Institute was originally created for the Canadian Pavilion of the 2001 Venice Biennale in Italy, where it received a Biennale di Venezia Special Award and a Bennesse Prize.