Milton Keynes International Festival 2010

Asleep at the wheel… is an immersive sound installation for multiple car radios that contemplates our future. Exhibited in a vast disused supermarket space, a three-lane ghost road of cars dissects the darkened interior, animated by sound and projections.

With the car headlights on and hazard lights blinking, you are invited to be a passenger in the back seats, as the interior becomes your personal sound cinema. A series of FM radio transmitters broadcast the music to each car differently.

The soundtrack is composed from middle-of-the-road radio loops, traffic and car rhythms, naïve childhood musical fragments and distant motorways. These are transformed into ethereal slow motion ambiences to create a thought-provoking daydream space.

Society's head long, pedal to the metal, attitude has us hurtling to the future. We need to change gear, before we overtake ourselves. ‘Peak Oil’ and ‘Tipping Point’ are the new terms by which we must navigate the road ahead. Only the future remains.

Janek Schaefer is a leading international sound artist, and in 2008 was The British Composer of the Year in Sonic Art. He is Artist in Residence for IF.

Janek discusses his work on Friday 16 July as part of the IF Talking Shop Series

Artist's Website: www.audiOh.com