The Diner


2022, sound installation, loop, Stereo 

(presented as a part of site specific collective exhibition
‘00:59:59’, One Fen Court, 120 Fenchurch St, London)





The Diner, 2022, Installation view,
“00:59:59”, One Fen Court, 120 Fenchurch St., London




The Diner ii


2022, sound installation, 13:30, Stereo headphones





“The Diner” is a 13 '30'’ sonic composition, an expanded reiteration of the sound installation presented in the collaborative group exhibition “0:59:59” in response to the exhibition's location at One Fen Court, 120 Fenchurch Street, London.


Collaging samples of pop song “Tom’s Diner”, AI generated voice narrative and intimate recordings of everyday sound, the piece explores notions of liminal space: physical, mental, metaphorical. The listener is being transported into different sonic spaces with a liminal quality: the transition between two locations or states of being. The piece evokes the experience of never-ending waiting times in corporate customer service phone calls by adopting the aesthetic of on-hold music and synthesised voice. The voice speaks in a polite but cold manner, questioning and interrogating the listener to choose between the opposed options, some more extreme than the others. The sound refers to a sonic space where past, present and future are obscure while the listener waits between forced choices. In the attempt to connect users to answers to their problems, these spaces, as almost bureaucratic systems, often fail in ways that underline just how uncaring automation can be.


The constant need to make choices is less present when the soundscape shifts towards the recordings of everyday sounds such as writing on paper and cleaning the house. The recordings amplify the gestural and physical link between hands and object which creates a tension between loneliness and comfort.