The Instrument of Troubled Dreams is an interactive site-specific installation by Canadian artists Janet Cardiff (1957) and George Bures Miller (1960). Members of the public are invited to play the mellotron (and the instrument only comes to life when they do). On until 29 April 2019 in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam.
•
“Prior to the opening…artists Janet Cardiff (JC) and George Bures Miller spoke about the work with director and curator Jacqueline Grandjean (JG)
[an excerpt from the installation brochure]
“JC: Poetry is actually a big thing in all of our work. The thing we use to put things together.
“JG: Absolutely, the fragmentation, the rhythm of it.
“JC: Yes so much of our work is about poetic juxtaposition. You have to have the memory of the one segment to move on to the next segment and figure out how they go together… Create this magic.”
•
“Based on the church’s Vater-Müller organ, which was being restored at the time, the artists devised another organ with a soundtrack conceived for the building, which the public was invited to play. Twenty-five speakers connected to a mellotron (a mechanical precursor of the sampler) mixed different sounds—vocal, musical, mechanical, plus sounds from inanimate objects or nature—with sounds from, among other things, the aforementioned organ.”
“The result is a haunting, resplendent soundscape of single and overlapping sounds (depending on how the instrument was played) that echoed and pervaded the vast space, activating personal and collective memories, sparking a rich plethora of associations and recalling the ghosts of history, recent and past.”
