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Smartphone becomes artphone in new protest against BP at Tate
Wednesday 11th April 2012 | Osh
Smartphones provide the link in new protest at Tate
Artists protesting at Tate's relationship with BP have created new artworks that provide the sound track for an “alternative audio tour” of Tate Modern, Tate Britain and Tate Boat. This 'alternative audio tour' is available to download onto any smartphone and it heralds a new and sophisticated form of protest. Download link: http://soundcloud.com/platformlondon-1
Cheekily entitled The Tate à Tate Audio Tour, the soundtrack uses Tate real estate as it's backdrop and is designed to be listened to in situ. The idea is beautifully simple in that it uses Tate visuals but replaces the sound.
The sound works are all by renowned artists and have been commissioned by three activist organisations Platform, Art Not Oil and Liberate Tate.
The three newly commissioned Tate à Tate Audio Tour artworks are:
The Panaudicon by Ansuman Biswas (Tate Britain)
Tate Britain is built on the site of a prison. The original design for the prison took the form of a panopticon, a type of institutional building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late eighteenth century. The design concept was to allow an observer to monitor all inmates of an institution without them being able to tell whether or not they were being watched. Ansuman Biswas neatly turns the tables on this idea. Tate gallery staff will have no idea what visitors are listening to on their mobiles. Placing the gallery itself under scrutiny, Ansuman Biswas’s ‘Panaudicon’ takes the idea of surveillance and uses sound to transport the listener beyond the walls of Tate Britain to locations around the world where BP is drilling for oil. This guerrilla audio tour refocuses our attention on Tate’s continued reliance upon oil money for sponsorship.
‘This is not an Oil Tanker’ by Isa Suarez, Mae Martin and Mark McGowan. (Tate Boat)
Specially created to be listened to whilst travelling on the Thames by Tate Boat between Tate Britain and Tate Modern. ‘This is not an Oil Tanker’ has a distinctly aquatic theme. The sound work combines music, lyrics and surrealism to explore the experiences of various communities impacted by the exploits of oil companies.
Drilling the Dirt (‘A Temporary Difficulty’) by Phil England and Jim Welton. (Tate Modern)
Phil England and Jim Welton have produced their own Tate Modern Audio Tour thereby subverting the widely used exhibition technology that facilitates communication of information about an artwork to museum visitors. The title is a reference to Sir Nicholas Serota’s comment about BP when he said “We all recognise they have a difficulty at the moment but you don't abandon your friends because they have what we consider to be a temporary difficulty."
The beauty of this interactive piece is that it navigates the listener through the museum but changes the context in which the exhibits are viewed. Starting at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall you are guided to specific art works in Tate’s collection that are now bathed in a completely new light. The paratexts in this alternative audio guide are designed to open up the very debate that Tate would rather not have about its relationship to BP.
Tour start points:
You can choose from any one of three different locations in order to start the tour. For Tate Britain, position yourself in the lobby just beside the stand where they are selling audio guides, for the Tate Modern you need to stand at the entrance to the Tate Turbine Hall at the top of the ram leading down into the hall, and for the boat journey you can simply press play once you have boarded the boat and sat down.
Download instructions:
The new The Tate á Tate Audio Tour is available to download here
