The Economy of Guilt (2010) | Audio-Installation

24 minutes/ 16 channel audio installation ca. 5m x 5m / 16 passive speakers, 16 speaker stands / audio cable / 24 track HD digital recorder / 2 x 8 channel audio amplifier 

Collective responsibility, collective guilt, and collective absolution, are key to how many societal systems function. Some are guiltier than others, but all are responsible. And in the end, who is to blame?

The installation in collaboration with Adrian Sievering consists of 16 loudspeakers laid out in a grid system. A different voice can be heard on every speaker, which together in a collective recounts an abstract expression of guilt in the form of a fictitious litany.

Over the duration of 24 minutes, the speakers repeat variations of this text, oscillating between phases of collectivity, chaos and individuality. The resulting dynamic overrides the anonymity of the speakers, and invites the viewer to identify themselves with the collective; the ritual seduces them to take part. The standardisation and constant repetition of personal guilt, renders its very meaning banal.