First Floor Cubed is part of the solo exhibition Rooms at Oakville Galleries Gairloch Gardens exhibition space, a site-related collection of works.

I imagine each room on the first floor as 1/6 its actual size; 1:6, a scale commonly used for dolls with articulated limbs like G.I. Joe and Barbie. These smaller rooms are then reshaped from the architectural form to a cubic form. Each cube is then placed approximately where it would have been located on the floor plan.

The blinds in this room are mechanized and act as a volume control for the sound. As the blinds go up the audio in the sound objects is turned down. As the blinds go down the audio goes up. Each time the blinds close, a new sound composition is heard (there are 3 different pieces made from the same material) for a total of three compositions.

COMPOSITION #1: if the largest object is 37 1/2 cubic inches then the longest clip will be 52 seconds. If the longest sound is in the largest cube then the audio level will be the quietest. All sound clips begin simultaneously.

COMPOSITION #2: swap the clips between cubes from COMPOSITION #1 – put the sound from the largest cube in the smallest, etc. Stagger the beginning point of each clip based on height.

COMPOSITION #3: make all clips equal in length and play all clips consecutively based on height location. Once all the clips have played once, begin again and again in quicker succession. Never alter the order or the length each clip plays.

Exhibition History:
2011 Oakville Galleries Gairloch Gardens (Oakville, Canada)