The Intimate 8

Background The soundtrack for the performance project, “The Intimate 8” experimented with how listening to a live performance and score through headphones could enhance a museum visitor’s engagement with legacy artworks in a fine art collection. Drawing from the disciplines of theatrical live performance, art education and the sonic experience of cinema, both the sound and the performance subverted the traditionally respectful gallery audioguide as well as the conservative gallery tour. Contribution Whilst science museums from Minnosota to London have been employing drama to activate collections since the 1970’s (Durant, 1992), this project’s innovation was to draw on the intimacy of a live performance so as to change a visitor’s experience of the gallery. Through this work, the sound artist demonstrates how sound can supplant a well-known, well-worn actual diegesis (as found in a gallery) with an active, charged virtual one. The effect is not only to heighten a visitor’s emotional relationship with the fine art works being presented, but to have them experience the museum from within a different aural reality. This is a significant development from equivalent experiences of audio in fine art museum settings. Significance The inaugural artistic fellow for the NGV, international performance artist Moira Finucane commissioned Verhagen and Keene for the soundtrack of this site-specific performance in Victoria's premiere gallery. Reviews and audience feedback was enthusiastic (see support) and discussions are underway to replicate the idea in other galleries from Geelong to Beijing.