Team Gallery
Art Basel Unlimited 2016

At this year's edition of Art Unlimited, Samson Young will debut Canon (as you set out for Ithaka, hope the voyage is a long one), an artwork comprised of a sound installation and a series of drawings. Songs of migrating birds in distress – collected with the help of bird rehabilitators from Marsa Matruh in Egypt – are beamed with a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) in a straight line, from a first location to a second, over a long distance (approximately 150 meters). At the second site, which takes on the rough appearance of a fenced off public park, birdsongs seems to emerge from nowhere, their emanating source invisible. The works on paper, which hang on walls, are in fact graphic transcriptions of the aleatoric noise.

The Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) is a sound cannon – a “non-lethal” sonic weapon capable of directing sounds in a straight beam toward a precise target from a maximum distance of 1000 meters. The machine is frequently deployed by law enforcement to neutralize protesters. When used at top volume, it can induce permanent hearing impairment. LRAD is also used to repel birds on private properties, usually by broadcasting distressed-bird calls.

This project is presented by Team Gallery in collaboration with Galerie Gisela Capitain.