0:00:00.264,0:00:02.847
(gentle music)

0:00:07.246,0:00:09.913
(dynamic music)

0:00:11.601,0:00:13.470
(train screeching)

0:00:13.470,0:00:15.240
- I'm not really an artist.

0:00:15.240,0:00:16.833
I never studied at art school.

0:00:18.240,0:00:20.043
I call myself a private ear.

0:00:21.930,0:00:23.760
And I've dedicated a lot of work

0:00:23.760,0:00:26.043
to thinking about a politics of listening.

0:00:27.960,0:00:30.210
That's quite different[br]to politics of speech,

0:00:30.210,0:00:31.960
where everyone should have a voice.

0:00:32.880,0:00:36.240
Because where and when[br]those voices are heard

0:00:36.240,0:00:37.555
is just as important.

0:00:37.555,0:00:40.500
(dynamic music continues)

0:00:40.500,0:00:43.410
Not truly understanding[br]how that voice is heard,

0:00:43.410,0:00:45.513
you miss literally half the story.

0:00:49.050,0:00:51.240
Part of the work has been[br]to try to sort of define

0:00:51.240,0:00:53.341
where those limits are,[br]those limits of listening.

0:00:53.341,0:00:56.841
(dynamic music continues)

0:01:05.479,0:01:07.230
When I began an acoustic investigation

0:01:07.230,0:01:10.647
into a prison that was[br]modeled on this GDR archetype.

0:01:12.108,0:01:13.830
The Mercedes-Benz of prisons in Syria,

0:01:13.830,0:01:17.413
the one I investigated,[br]is called Saydnaya.

0:01:39.934,0:01:42.360
These films and[br]performances are a proposal

0:01:42.360,0:01:45.270
to listen to people in ways[br]in which I think is adequate

0:01:45.270,0:01:47.520
for the kind of political[br]claim that I'm making.

0:01:47.520,0:01:48.950
This listening tower has a...

0:01:48.950,0:01:51.090
In a documentary, or in the news,

0:01:51.090,0:01:52.890
there's really strict conventions

0:01:52.890,0:01:56.100
about the way we think we[br]should listen to people.

0:01:56.100,0:01:57.240
In the space of the museum,

0:01:57.240,0:01:59.040
you have this chance to experiment

0:01:59.040,0:02:02.614
with the ways in which you[br]can actually present a story.

0:02:02.614,0:02:04.781
(banging)

0:02:06.240,0:02:08.460
Walled Unwalled is a set of reflections

0:02:08.460,0:02:10.620
from having conducted an investigation

0:02:10.620,0:02:13.440
into the Syrian regime prison[br]for Amnesty International

0:02:13.440,0:02:15.861
working with Forensic Architecture.

0:02:15.861,0:02:18.810
(crowd shouting)

0:02:18.810,0:02:22.170
- [Narrator] Since 2011,[br]tens of thousands of people

0:02:22.170,0:02:24.840
have disappeared into a[br]vast network of prisons

0:02:24.840,0:02:26.880
run by the Syrian government.

0:02:26.880,0:02:28.863
Many have been taken to Saydnaya.

0:02:30.240,0:02:32.790
Amnesty International[br]and Forensic Architecture

0:02:32.790,0:02:36.690
traveled to Turkey to meet a[br]group of Saydnaya survivors.

0:02:36.690,0:02:39.360
We used architectural[br]and acoustic modeling

0:02:39.360,0:02:41.220
to reconstruct the prison

0:02:41.220,0:02:44.160
and their experiences of detention.

0:02:44.160,0:02:46.530
Because the prisoners[br]were held in darkness,

0:02:46.530,0:02:49.983
their memories depend on an[br]acute experience of sound.

0:02:51.480,0:02:53.820
- I was tasked to lead the sound component

0:02:53.820,0:02:56.700
of that investigation,[br]and to try and solicit

0:02:56.700,0:02:58.080
as much information as we could

0:02:58.080,0:03:00.570
about what was happening inside there.

0:03:00.570,0:03:02.910
And yet, all of the[br]witnesses insisted to me

0:03:02.910,0:03:04.320
that the walls of their cells

0:03:04.320,0:03:06.390
shook from the beatings that took place

0:03:06.390,0:03:10.140
in distant and unlocatable[br]areas of the prison.

0:03:10.140,0:03:12.030
Later I understood why.

0:03:12.030,0:03:13.290
The shape of the building,

0:03:13.290,0:03:15.120
the dimensions of the corridors,

0:03:15.120,0:03:16.950
meant that sounds made in the cells

0:03:16.950,0:03:18.903
are reflected towards a central tower.

0:03:20.610,0:03:22.890
For them to kind of claw back knowledge

0:03:22.890,0:03:24.960
in the face of sensory deprivation

0:03:24.960,0:03:27.817
was a real powerful experience.

0:03:27.817,0:03:29.370
(person shouting)

0:03:29.370,0:03:32.190
The wall is something that was[br]completely containing them.

0:03:32.190,0:03:35.280
Yet, the leaking of the[br]sound through the wall,

0:03:35.280,0:03:37.950
that was their way out to the world.

0:03:37.950,0:03:39.603
The wall was kind of porous.

0:03:41.220,0:03:45.810
- Room one series[br]closeup, take one. (claps)

0:03:45.810,0:03:48.240
- The whole idea with Walled Unwalled

0:03:48.240,0:03:51.720
was to have this performance play out

0:03:51.720,0:03:54.300
in an old recording studio.

0:03:54.300,0:03:57.810
Everything you see is shot[br]through that soundproof glass.

0:03:57.810,0:04:00.993
It all felt like a way of[br]speaking about the prison.

0:04:01.980,0:04:02.880
And in some point in the film

0:04:02.880,0:04:04.560
you see someone flashing a light.

0:04:04.560,0:04:06.387
She was flashing the[br]light because there was no

0:04:06.387,0:04:08.370
audible communication through these walls.

0:04:08.370,0:04:10.350
I mean, they were really soundproof.

0:04:10.350,0:04:15.120
Now, no wall on earth is impermeable.

0:04:15.120,0:04:19.637
Today, we're all wall, and no wall at all.

0:04:22.950,0:04:26.190
Ironically, the more we are connected,

0:04:26.190,0:04:31.190
the more walls are shown to[br]be this sort of futile thing,

0:04:31.230,0:04:34.461
the more we're invested[br]in protecting the border.

0:04:34.461,0:04:37.044
(somber music)

0:04:38.010,0:04:40.290
Borders are not lines.

0:04:40.290,0:04:44.433
They are these layered[br]spaces, rich with history.

0:04:50.580,0:04:53.703
- There is a US border guard[br]sitting in that car there.

0:04:55.170,0:04:56.640
The engine stays running

0:04:56.640,0:04:59.891
and his eyes remain laser[br]focused on the main door.

0:04:59.891,0:05:01.920
(mysterious music)

0:05:01.920,0:05:05.430
Each visitor who crosses[br]the street over from the US

0:05:05.430,0:05:08.073
must also exit back into the US.

0:05:08.910,0:05:11.250
Those who come from[br]the right, from Canada,

0:05:11.250,0:05:14.100
must not, under any circumstances,

0:05:14.100,0:05:16.320
even if they have a valid visa,

0:05:16.320,0:05:18.573
exit the library into the US.

0:05:19.650,0:05:22.050
The border cannot be crossed here.

0:05:22.050,0:05:25.413
And yet, inside it's like the[br]border doesn't even exist.

0:05:26.250,0:05:30.420
Technically, Agatha Christie[br]sits on a shelf on US soil,

0:05:30.420,0:05:32.763
while Iggy Pop's biography is in Canada.

0:05:33.780,0:05:35.850
- [Film Worker] A1-Eagle,[br]take one. (claps)

0:05:35.850,0:05:39.630
- This library and opera[br]house were built on the border

0:05:39.630,0:05:42.189
between Canada and America.

0:05:42.189,0:05:43.620
And that seemed to me as a space in which

0:05:43.620,0:05:46.440
you could tell the story of borders,

0:05:46.440,0:05:48.060
starting with that electrical tape

0:05:48.060,0:05:49.710
that cuts through the library.

0:05:49.710,0:05:52.560
Expand on that and show all of the way

0:05:52.560,0:05:56.463
in which the border exists[br]as something that is absurd.

0:05:57.900,0:06:02.190
And yet, they are this[br]sort of network of power

0:06:02.190,0:06:05.973
that is being exerted, sometimes[br]in completely lethal ways.

0:06:10.860,0:06:12.600
- When the murder took place,

0:06:12.600,0:06:15.030
the murderer and the[br]murdered were actually

0:06:15.030,0:06:17.463
in entirely different jurisdictions.

0:06:19.080,0:06:21.360
Though Mesa's firearm was stretched out

0:06:21.360,0:06:25.350
into Mexican territory,[br]his feet were three inches

0:06:25.350,0:06:26.943
behind the American border.

0:06:28.620,0:06:31.143
If Agent Mesa had stepped over the line,

0:06:32.190,0:06:33.960
there would be no question of Mexico

0:06:33.960,0:06:37.263
demanding his extradition[br]for murdering their citizen.

0:06:37.263,0:06:39.720
(haunting music)

0:06:39.720,0:06:42.453
At the Supreme Court,[br]a hypothetical emerged.

0:06:43.500,0:06:45.900
If Mesa could be prosecuted,

0:06:45.900,0:06:48.720
could anyone killed abroad by a US agent

0:06:48.720,0:06:50.943
seek justice in an American court?

0:06:52.080,0:06:52.913
No.

0:06:54.240,0:06:56.340
- It was such a close decision, five-four.

0:06:57.360,0:07:00.660
What swayed it was to recognize

0:07:00.660,0:07:03.960
that should they convict Agent Mesa,

0:07:03.960,0:07:06.690
they would be opening up[br]themselves to litigation

0:07:06.690,0:07:11.190
of every drone strike, because[br]it's the same story, right?

0:07:11.190,0:07:13.290
Someone pulls the trigger in Arizona

0:07:13.290,0:07:15.373
and somebody dies in Yemen.

0:07:15.373,0:07:17.956
(haunting music)

0:07:29.370,0:07:31.740
Well, I was born in Jordan.

0:07:31.740,0:07:33.573
But I also grew up in Yorkshire.

0:07:34.470,0:07:37.731
And I was exposed to the[br]DIY music scene in Leeds.

0:07:37.731,0:07:40.481
(dynamic music)

0:07:42.810,0:07:44.820
I spent years abusing my hearing,

0:07:44.820,0:07:48.030
playing in bands and[br]making a lot of noise.

0:07:48.030,0:07:51.030
It showed me how organization around sound

0:07:51.030,0:07:54.723
and music was a political act[br]to bring together communities.

0:07:58.230,0:08:00.420
Works that I make are cross-disciplinary.

0:08:00.420,0:08:02.982
And they demand the help[br]and resources of people

0:08:02.982,0:08:05.040
who are really in their discipline.

0:08:05.040,0:08:06.986
It's always a a team effort.

0:08:06.986,0:08:10.986
(moaning, clanking and tapping)

0:08:29.951,0:08:31.440
The beginning was great.[br]- Yeah.

0:08:31.440,0:08:33.018
- The sort of the keys.

0:08:33.018,0:08:33.960
- Can you hear that, I don't?[br]- Yeah.

0:08:33.960,0:08:36.030
I think starting with those details,

0:08:36.030,0:08:37.620
working with the knocker,

0:08:37.620,0:08:41.160
and then moving between the[br]sort of the lollipop on that,

0:08:41.160,0:08:42.420
and then to this.[br]- Do you like this?

0:08:42.420,0:08:44.550
Do you like opening this, or[br]should I stay away from it?

0:08:44.550,0:08:45.383
- No, no, do that.

0:08:45.383,0:08:47.507
That was really good.[br]- I'm kind of like...

0:08:47.507,0:08:49.674
(moaning)

0:08:52.200,0:08:54.570
- I specifically didn't[br]want a sound effects artist

0:08:54.570,0:08:56.970
to play those doors because[br]I knew that they would

0:08:56.970,0:08:58.830
know what they're doing with them.

0:08:58.830,0:09:02.160
That they would sort of fall[br]into a disciplinary mode

0:09:02.160,0:09:04.380
in which they're able to[br]do things with those doors

0:09:04.380,0:09:06.974
that is part of their professional world.

0:09:06.974,0:09:08.790
(tapping)

0:09:08.790,0:09:11.823
I wanted to see what else those[br]doors would be able to do.

0:09:13.230,0:09:15.960
Making whale calls, then slamming them

0:09:15.960,0:09:19.173
and bringing them back[br]to their door-like form.

0:09:20.100,0:09:21.960
And that was really important to the story

0:09:21.960,0:09:24.398
I was trying to tell[br]about acoustic memory.

0:09:24.398,0:09:28.231
(mallets banging and tapping)

0:09:35.310,0:09:38.010
Sound effects are really[br]key in the way we can both

0:09:38.010,0:09:40.230
solicit memory, but the way we also

0:09:40.230,0:09:42.183
commit those sounds to our memories.

0:09:45.690,0:09:47.310
The doors in Saydnaya Prison

0:09:47.310,0:09:49.350
had a similar effect on its survivors.

0:09:49.350,0:09:50.910
See, none of the door sounds I played

0:09:50.910,0:09:53.100
satisfied Samara's acoustic memory.

0:09:53.100,0:09:54.870
We found one that was okay,

0:09:54.870,0:09:57.020
but he kept telling me[br]to raise the volume.

0:09:58.200,0:10:00.600
The sounds were getting louder and louder,

0:10:00.600,0:10:02.430
until finally I played him the sound

0:10:02.430,0:10:04.203
of a huge metal door slamming

0:10:04.203,0:10:07.383
with the reverb set to[br]Notre Dame Cathedral.

0:10:09.930,0:10:11.730
Upon hearing this, Samara was taken aback.

0:10:11.730,0:10:15.090
He stopped me and he said,[br]this sound was present.

0:10:15.090,0:10:17.460
This was the exact sound, not of the door,

0:10:17.460,0:10:19.650
but the sound of sheets of bread

0:10:19.650,0:10:22.473
being dropped to the[br]ground outside my cell.

0:10:23.615,0:10:25.865
(pounding)

0:10:27.810,0:10:29.460
We would use a lot of sound effects

0:10:29.460,0:10:32.160
for those ear witness[br]interviews to really get to

0:10:32.160,0:10:34.020
the sound that we were talking about.

0:10:34.020,0:10:36.123
And sort of also place them in space.

0:10:37.170,0:10:40.499
And so I built this[br]inventory of sound effects.

0:10:40.499,0:10:44.070
(banging tapping and popping)

0:10:44.070,0:10:45.960
Based on all the legal[br]cases I'd worked on,

0:10:45.960,0:10:48.450
what would I've used[br]in a case where I need

0:10:48.450,0:10:52.058
to recreate a ricochet off[br]a border fence in Palestine?

0:10:52.058,0:10:54.840
(banging and crashing)

0:10:54.840,0:10:58.170
They really were very important[br]in the case of Saydnaya.

0:10:58.170,0:10:59.640
The metal door, a wooden door,

0:10:59.640,0:11:02.460
and a car door, adapted for my means.

0:11:02.460,0:11:04.860
And the idea that you[br]could really construct

0:11:04.860,0:11:07.893
a whole array of door sounds[br]from just this one instrument.

0:11:09.510,0:11:11.234
Goalkeeper gloves.[br]The granite stone tiles.

0:11:11.234,0:11:14.070
Green coconut, shouting.[br]Ice cream truck.

0:11:14.070,0:11:16.024
Where is the gun?[br]Music box.

0:11:16.024,0:11:19.107
(airplane whooshing)

0:11:27.670,0:11:30.210
Over the last 15, 16 years, Israeli jets

0:11:30.210,0:11:32.850
and drones flying over[br]Lebanon have created

0:11:32.850,0:11:36.273
a kind of acoustic fearscape[br]for people living in Lebanon.

0:11:38.490,0:11:42.047
Air Pressure began as a[br]acoustic investigation.

0:11:42.047,0:11:44.964
(keyboard tapping)

0:11:45.990,0:11:48.030
It's a website that sought to produce

0:11:48.030,0:11:49.860
some understanding[br]about what was happening

0:11:49.860,0:11:51.273
in the air over Lebanon.

0:11:53.231,0:11:56.550
I'm trying to, you know, Shazam the skies.

0:11:56.550,0:12:00.180
Hear a unmanned aerial[br]vehicle, identify that.

0:12:00.180,0:12:01.740
Hear a fighter jet, identify that.

0:12:01.740,0:12:03.120
And then start to hear the difference

0:12:03.120,0:12:05.767
between an F16, an F35.

0:12:08.940,0:12:11.370
We produced the first database

0:12:11.370,0:12:13.770
of these military aircraft in the sky.

0:12:13.770,0:12:16.143
And the numbers were staggering.

0:12:17.160,0:12:20.614
22,111 of them over the last 15 years.

0:12:20.614,0:12:23.197
(somber music)

0:12:26.040,0:12:29.370
And you see them interlinking[br]and overlapping over time.

0:12:29.370,0:12:30.870
It's not a map of a territory,

0:12:30.870,0:12:33.510
but it's actually a kind[br]of cartography of pressure

0:12:33.510,0:12:34.980
that's being exerted down.

0:12:34.980,0:12:36.690
It happens to be the shape of Lebanon

0:12:36.690,0:12:38.790
simply because the aircrafts have covered

0:12:38.790,0:12:40.323
the entirety of the country.

0:12:42.900,0:12:47.070
This is not a work about whose[br]air it is being violated.

0:12:47.070,0:12:49.740
The air doesn't belong[br]to the Lebanese either.

0:12:49.740,0:12:52.590
It's a work about how[br]you turn the air violent,

0:12:52.590,0:12:55.833
and how sound is really an[br]effective way to do that.

0:12:56.842,0:12:58.800
(airplane whooshing)

0:12:58.800,0:13:01.920
You can see every tweet and video made

0:13:01.920,0:13:04.710
referring to these aircraft in the sky.

0:13:04.710,0:13:06.540
You see people joking.

0:13:06.540,0:13:08.550
Some people say, "Oh,[br]look at these planes.

0:13:08.550,0:13:11.070
They're going so low they're[br]gonna cut my laundry wires."

0:13:11.070,0:13:13.710
Other people, you can tell they're scared.

0:13:13.710,0:13:16.230
They say, "Look what they[br]have in their arsenal.

0:13:16.230,0:13:17.730
May God protect us."

0:13:17.730,0:13:19.744
Other people simply use this hashtag

0:13:19.744,0:13:20.580
حربي بالاجواء

0:13:20.580,0:13:22.280
which means war in the atmosphere.

0:13:24.690,0:13:26.850
The website circulated very heavily

0:13:26.850,0:13:29.190
because no one had ever[br]done that work before.

0:13:29.190,0:13:32.700
And in fact, the Lebanese[br]government who contacted me later

0:13:32.700,0:13:36.116
had basically told me that[br]they had never even done this.

0:13:36.116,0:13:39.180
(airplane whooshing)

0:13:39.180,0:13:41.370
When I was producing Air Pressure,

0:13:41.370,0:13:43.560
and it got all this[br]international attention,

0:13:43.560,0:13:45.570
it occurred to me that 10 years had passed

0:13:45.570,0:13:47.867
of doing this kind of[br]acoustic investigation,

0:13:47.867,0:13:50.610
and that it needed its own kind of space.

0:13:50.610,0:13:53.134
Well I decided to start[br]this agency called Earshot.

0:13:53.134,0:13:55.884
(dynamic music)

0:13:57.240,0:13:59.763
We're a small team of people.

0:14:02.490,0:14:05.580
There's been a greater[br]awareness of why sound matters

0:14:05.580,0:14:07.323
for open source investigations.

0:14:09.270,0:14:11.490
I'd learned enough doing these projects

0:14:11.490,0:14:13.410
that I could also start[br]to train other people

0:14:13.410,0:14:16.560
to do this work, and we could[br]start to build our own agency

0:14:16.560,0:14:18.783
for acoustic and audio analysis.

0:14:23.280,0:14:25.800
I wanna build greater cognizance for what

0:14:25.800,0:14:29.793
good listening can do, and[br]what story sound can tell.

0:14:32.220,0:14:34.560
There's so much more to do,

0:14:34.560,0:14:37.830
and so many other ways in[br]which we can give people

0:14:37.830,0:14:39.668
the space and time to be heard.

0:14:39.668,0:14:44.668
(dynamic music)[br](people chattering)