Audio installation (desk, chair, lamp, telephone, sound, CD-player)
app. 120 x 120 x 140 cm


Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller produce multimedia installations, which extend the boundary of visual art, becoming hybrids of theatre, film and performance. 
The simple setup of Telephone evokes an office environment in a bygone era. Sitting at the desk and lifting the antiquated telephone receiver, the visitor eavesdrops on a conversation between Janet Cardiff and a scientist, which focuses on the nature of space and time, the subjective awareness of time and location. In this interaction the accelerating fluxes of information challenge the notion of emitter and recipient, a world wherein the message is often caught in cross-wires and delivered without the original context. Arguably, this trend stems from the invention of the telegraph and the resulting disembodiment of the message.


The installation also requires that the visitor adjusts their time to that of the piece, as if to slow down and truly ponder the temporal shift suggested and discussed by the artist.


Janet Cardiff: *1957 in Ontario, Canada I Living and working in Berlin, Germany
George Bures Miller: *1960 in Alberta, Canada I Living and working in Berlin, Germany