project title
[murmur] project presentation
project description
[murmur] is an interventionist public audio art project that connects people with their city. Pedestrians walk past sites marked with a sign indicating the presence of a story and a number that can be dialed to access it using a cellular telephone. This method allows the listener to hear the story of that place in that place; the details come alive as the listener walks through, around, and into the narrative. The stories are as personal as the relationship people have with the spaces they inhabit. Secret histories unearthed, private truths unveiled and tales as diverse as the city itself are discovered and shared.
By engaging with [murmur], people develop a new intimacy with places and "history" acquires a multitude of new voices. The physical experience of hearing a story in its actual setting - of hearing the walls talk - brings uncommon knowledge to common space, and brings people closer to the real histories that make up their world.
name
Shawn Micallef, James Roussel, Gabe Sawhney
location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
profile
[murmur] was conceived by Gabe Sawhney, James Roussel and Shawn Micallef while residents at the Canadian Film Centre's H@bitat New Media Lab. During their six-month tenure, Habitat residents undergo an intensive team-based new media training programme under the mentorship of key international faculty and guests. The final four months are dedicated to the practical application of the knowledge accumulated during the previous two months with the creativity and innate skills with which they came to the programme.
Gabe, James and Shawn gravitated towards each other based on their shared desire to blend their love of cities, urban theory, psychogeography and public art with new media and to use technology in a way that is relevant and accessible to people who are not typical art connoisseurs.
Shawn Micallef attended the University of Windsor, obtaining a BA and MA in Political Science. His scholarly interests included modern and postmodern theory. His Masters thesis, "Liberation Theology as a Transnational Social Movement: The case of the North American Sanctuary Movement" examined, in part, how Liberation Theology practitioners used new technologies to build and expand the movement. Shawn has also produced and hosted a world issues radio programme and was active in student government. Currently, he is a freelance writer for various publications including www.sceneandheard.ca; a Toronto-based web magazine. He also likes to walk around and explore cities. Shawn is a board member of the Toronto Public Space Committee (publicspace.ca) and writes a column about the Toronto Flaneur experience in Spacing , the committee’s magazine.
James Roussel is a Toronto-based performer who has long been immersed in many different aspects of the storytelling process. He has gained extensive experience from working in performance for film, television, stage, sketch comedy and radio. James was recently a guest star on the Royal Canadian Air Farce.
Gabe Sawhney is an experienced application developer, with production credits for many Internet, web and wireless applications whose clients include Eye weekly (www.eye.net), Openflows Networks Ltd. (www.openflows.org ), and Klein-Lewis Productions (www.nologo.org ). Gabe has also collaborated on a number of interactive art installations. With an academic background in architecture, film and semiotics, Gabe balances a keen understanding of technology with a passionate interest in visual design, usability and information architecture.
links
www.murmurtoronto.ca
www.murmurvancouver.ca
www.murmure.ca
