by Carlos Cuevas

For our Artist Presentation assignment, I chose to research Janet Cardiff. Upon researching this new media artist, I discovered that a lot of her work/installations have been in collaboration with George Bures Miller. This new media duo, originally from Ontario, Canada, have a broad range of installations spanning over two decades. Cardiff’s expertise, so to speak, lies with her ability to manipulate the audience or participant, as well as the environment, with audio loops. The majority of her solo work was audio based, so it’s only natural that it carries over into her collaborative work with Miller. While skimming through their portfolio site, I noticed that their work is incredibly complex while managing to appear as simple as possible. For example, some of their works are simply video/audio recordings on loop, whereas others are large-scaled installations that evoke different emotions through thrilling and ominous sounds.