Alvin Lucier

I Am Sitting In A Room

Alvin Lucier


I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in 
now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am 
going to play it back into the room again and again until 
the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves 
so that any semblance of my speech, with perhaps the 
exception of r-r-r-rhythm, is destroyed. What you will 
hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the 
room articulated by speech. I regard this activity nnnnnot 
so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as 
a way to s-s-smooth out any irregularities my speech might 
have.