"Minneapolis 'Office Max' Messages"

TIme-lapse sound portrait of an all American neighbourhood

[1:45] (C) audiOh! Recordings 2003

Story

I was doing a residency in Minneapolis, and hunting for a way to make sound recordings by floating a weather balloon up
into the clouds above the city... I went to Office Max to look for something cheap and lightweight.
I found a great mini digital dictophone, and they sold me the display model.

Office Max is a particular type of urban sprawl warehouse with aisles and aisles of products out on display.
Unusually you were allowed to interact with the gadgets without irritating staff observation.
So in the case of a dictaphone the customers felt free to act out their stereotypes into the mic.

After leaving the shop I got into my car and discovered an amazing selection of these recordings waiting
for me on the display model which is what I used to make the short piece. A portrait of the neighbourhood.

The piece concludes with a short recording I made of the car radio as I tested it outside in the carpark.

Play Minneapolis 'Office Max' Messages MP3