∃.DOC

∃.DOC was realized inside a deconsecrated church and explores the acoustic character of the space by transforming the presence of visitors into a subtle sound environment.

Small surveillance microphones were distributed throughout the building, both inside and outside the church. They were hidden within the architecture and inside the works of other participating artists, capturing fragments of conversations, footsteps and ambient noise produced by the visitors.

At the entrance of the church, within the first architectural niche, a two-meter-high wall was constructed. The surface of the wall was perforated with small holes. Behind it a mixer connected to all microphones, together with an amplifier and a loudspeaker, created a live acoustic system.

The signals collected by the microphones were mixed and amplified in real time. What would normally remain imperceptible became a very faint sound emerging from the small perforations in the wall. A whisper coming from behind the surface.

The loudspeaker was positioned to interact with the particular acoustics of the church. The sound could be perceived only in two precise locations: directly in front of the wall or near the position of the former altar. In the rest of the space the sound almost completely disappeared.

Through this system the installation generated the sound of the space itself. The acoustic environment of the church was continuously and unconsciously modified by the presence and behaviour of visitors, transforming the architecture into a resonating body activated by human presence.

The title reads ∃.DOC, where ∃ is the mathematical symbol for "there exists": there exists a document. Every word spoken in the church is captured, whether or not the speaker knows it. The building that for centuries housed an invisible listener is turned into a listening device, and the whisper can be heard only in front of the perforated wall, like a confessional grille, and at the place of the former altar.