This project examines the space the SoundsAbout Gallery occupies within the context of its neighborhood by collecting field recordings and interviews from people on Potsdamerstraße between U Kleistpark and U Kurfurstenstraße. Located next to the bar at the back of the group exhibition Let There Be WiFi, the work offers a space for visitors to have drink tea, rest, and converse. Through performances off- and online and a sound installation, sound in the form of listening and hearing is utilized as a way to connect between the private and public.

Borrowing from Ray Oldenburg’s concept of the third place, the art gallery is re-imagined as a part of the public sphere, where its utilities may be offered to visitors as amenities. Thinking of voice as a thread that connects between speaker and listener, I approached such acts of speaking and listening as an act of weaving together the gallery into its surrounding areas. 

The sound installation cycles through 10 mono tracks of interviews and field recordings, each approximately 5-15 minutes long, and are played on the speakers placed on the tables. 8 shorter two-channel tracks of my voice narrating the businesses on the street, with durations of three to ten minutes, are to be played on the two speakers hung in the air. the radio is set to a local station, preferably one that has a mix of talk radio and pop music.