Temporary Public Artwork
Independent
‘Intermission’ was a commission developed for Spike Island Open Studios, 2011 and presented a new work by artist Oliver Sutherland called ‘The Rider’.
‘The Rider’ is a three track audio work. Each track, or chapter consists of an original text re-shaped by feeding through text-to-speech software, which uses a pre-set voice. This alteration skews the emphasis and delivery of these texts and the result is a stuttered, jerky and computerised version of the original, which removes any familiarity you might have had if reading the texts yourself, or hearing them read by an un-altered voice. The chapters have a particular structure, which gives the impression you have entered halfway through – gobbets alluding to fictional places, animals or events that have the capacity to remove you from your immediate surrounding. As you hear the words you might find yourself trying to fill in the gaps or create visual images from the information given.