Janet Cardiff

Janet Cardiff was recomended to me the other day by my lecturer, about her peice entitled 'the murder of crows' which is ment to be linked to Edgar Allen Poes The raven. When looking at her work with George Bureres miller i was very intreaged, there instillations are very impressive and would love to go witness one in person. I could only manage to get short clips of it and not a hole peice but from what i have heard its a very interesting mix of sounds collected together, the peice ive heard is where there is a woman telling a story about a soldier who tried deserting his troops and they discuss how they tell him there gonna chop off his leg so he cant run again, but they do it to scare him as hes no use to them with one leg.  From what ive read of the peice as its 30mins long and i cant find more then 5min selections of it: the instillation is ninety-eight audio speakers mounted around the space on stands, chairs and the wall. The structure of the piece tries to mirror that of the illogical but connected juxtapositions that we experience in the dream world. One soundscape moves into another with an electronic dreamscape composition shifting into sound effects such as factory noises, crashing waves or birds wings and then into a guitar and strings composition then into a choir sequence and marching band. 

The title for the installation is ‘The Murder of Crows’, which means a grouping of crows. Sometimes when a crow dies, many other crows flock to the area around the dead bird and caw for over 24 hours, creating a ‘crow funeral’. The title also provides a thematic entry into the installation; a basis to create a work that becomes a metaphor for our political situation today. And features heavily around the ideas of dreams.