Gallery 1 had no sound piped into the space, it was hollow, almost eerie. Its main sound was the hum of what I believed to be a ventilation system, which could not be seen. This was interrupted with soft soled shoes on the wooden floor, making a not unpleasant interruption in the quite hum. This was in contrast with the sudden sharp tap of high heeled shoes and coughs and sneezes which were amplified in the quiet enclosed space. The space was filled with mostly hard objects deflecting noises around the room.

For some the gallery would be a quiet contemplative place, a space to read the exhibition – which was mainly in the format of books, magazines, propaganda posters, newspaper and other articles. For me the lack of an encompassing sound made me feel vulnerable, felt strict, that I must remain quiet otherwise I would be noticed.

Gallery 2 was dominated with sounds from a film being shown, which had loud bellowing noises with sudden and disjointed layers of other sound effects added at different points. The effects were all loud but varied from being the pleasant sound of trickling water, to sharp scraping noises and the deafening roar of what sounded like a jet engine, to what I could imagine would be the thump of a heart beating with fear. The cinema room built within the gallery had soft cinema style seating, fabric on it’s temporary walls and lowered ceiling to help absorb the sound effects and prevent them from being amplified to an even greater extent through the larger space.

Gallery 3 & 4 are linked by a large opening in their joining wall so sounds flow through each gallery, increasing or decreasing in volume depending on position. At times the sounds were loud or very loud, others were quiet. Most were repeated with breaks between, apart from an instillation which included a water feature which was a constant not too loud and pleasant sound. If each sound was visible it would consist of a tribal African female chanting, a woman shouting and a large speaker reverberating with booming music. The stopping and starting and varying volumes of sound allowed for the natural sounds of the gallery to be present, those sounds that would be there regardless of the exhibition – movement, footsteps, chatter, children.