Lost in the Memory Palace | Storm Room

Storm Room, 2009

Mixed media/audio installation
10 minutes (loop) - 3.35 x 5.79 x 3.35m

Originally, this work was created in a deserted dentist's office in a traditional Japanese house near the city of Tokamachi, Japan as part the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial in 2009. During the building of the prototype in their studio, Cardiff and Miller realized that it would be interesting to adapt the piece into an installation work where the audience could enter the full-scale replica of the Japanese dentist office. The piece begins as a storm approaches, then proceeds to the incredibly loud, floor-shaking climax. As the storm dissipates the sound of someone moving and coughing in the next room is heard and then the piece starts again. A computer controls the flow of water, the lights, the strobes and the fans. An ambisonic sound track plays through eight hidden speakers and two hidden subwoofers.