Sound and Documentary in Cardiff and Miller's Pandemonium Main Menu The Project Chapter 1: Pandemonium—Sensory Assault and Deprivation Chapter 2: Sound Art—Narrative and Noise Chapter 3: Documentary—“Waking the Dead” Conclusions: Pandemonium, Radical Proximity, and Protest Acknowledgments Bibliography All Media News + Updates

The Project

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Welcome to the digital companion to my master's thesis, "Sound and Documentary in Cardiff and Miller's 'Pandemonium,'" completed spring 2015 in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland, College Park. At the heart of my project is the temporary, site-specific sound installation Pandemonium, which occupied the Eastern State Penitentiary historic site in Philadelphia from 2005 through 2007. This project was conceived in three chapters: 
  • Chapter 1 introduces the artwork, its context at the Eastern State Penitentiary, its makers Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, and its interpretations so far.
  • Chapter 2 investigates Pandemonium's relationship to music and sound art.
  • Chapter 3 situates Pandemonium, and Cardiff's audio walk Words Drawn in Water (2005), in terms of the trompe l'oeil realist tradition and documentary-related practices in contemporary art.
The path below mirrors that sequence. Each chapter is also subdivided into shorter thematic sections, accessible from chapter landing pages and tagged to related content throughout. These can be perused independently in any order.

This site is primarily an experiment - one that is active and ongoing - in presenting research on sound art in a format that facilitates listening as well as looking. My aim is to offer an informal and flexible experience of this content. To that end the site will evolve in dialogue with users - I welcome your critical feedback! 

Contents of this path:

  1. Chapter 1: Pandemonium—Sensory Assault and Deprivation
  2. Chapter 2: Sound Art—Narrative and Noise
  3. Chapter 3: Documentary—“Waking the Dead”
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. Bibliography