Vol de temps

sound installation commissioned for La Flânerie expo, AU_PASSAGE galerie, Paris

Vol de temps is a site-specific sound installation based on field recordings made while walking in Paris, or trying to find time to walk in Paris, or getting ready to walk in Paris. Using hypersensitive binaural mics mounted in the artist’s ears, the piece catches both the sounds of the city and of her body’s motion. Her work juxtaposes the 19th-century imagination of le Flâneur as a detached observer, with the reality of daily life in the metropolis – rushing from the atelier to la crèche, locking the door, putting on one’s raincoat, descending down the stairs into the metro, sighs, footsteps, sirens.

Unable to be a true flâneur in a her life as a working mother, the artist exploits sound as a time-based medium, digitally stretching and warping the sounds of her steps in the city to metaphorically “steal time” and extend her moments of free motion. The results are no longer recognizable as steps but reveal to us the digital traces and resonances of an attempt to capture these moments in recording technology. “Time theft” is a term used in management to describe a worker who does not use their time efficiently or for their assigned tasks.

audio excerpt (please listen with headphones or good speakers if possible & don’t use chrome browser)