1
00:00:00,264 --> 00:00:02,847
(gentle music)

2
00:00:07,246 --> 00:00:09,913
(dynamic music)

3
00:00:11,601 --> 00:00:13,470
(train screeching)

4
00:00:13,470 --> 00:00:15,240
- I'm not really an artist.

5
00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:16,833
I never studied at art school.

6
00:00:18,240 --> 00:00:20,043
I call myself a private ear.

7
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And I've dedicated a lot of work

8
00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:26,043
to thinking about a politics of listening.

9
00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:30,210
That's quite different
to politics of speech,

10
00:00:30,210 --> 00:00:31,960
where everyone should have a voice.

11
00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:36,240
Because where and when
those voices are heard

12
00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:37,555
is just as important.

13
00:00:37,555 --> 00:00:40,500
(dynamic music continues)

14
00:00:40,500 --> 00:00:43,410
Not truly understanding
how that voice is heard,

15
00:00:43,410 --> 00:00:45,513
you miss literally half the story.

16
00:00:49,050 --> 00:00:51,240
Part of the work has been
to try to sort of define

17
00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:53,341
where those limits are,
those limits of listening.

18
00:00:53,341 --> 00:00:56,841
(dynamic music continues)

19
00:01:05,479 --> 00:01:07,230
When I began an acoustic investigation

20
00:01:07,230 --> 00:01:10,647
into a prison that was
modeled on this GDR archetype.

21
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The Mercedes-Benz of prisons in Syria,

22
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the one I investigated,
is called Saydnaya.

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These films and
performances are a proposal

24
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to listen to people in ways
in which I think is adequate

25
00:01:45,270 --> 00:01:47,520
for the kind of political
claim that I'm making.

26
00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:48,950
This listening tower has a...

27
00:01:48,950 --> 00:01:51,090
In a documentary, or in the news,

28
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there's really strict conventions

29
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about the way we think we
should listen to people.

30
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In the space of the museum,

31
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you have this chance to experiment

32
00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:02,614
with the ways in which you
can actually present a story.

33
00:02:02,614 --> 00:02:04,781
(banging)

34
00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:08,460
Walled Unwalled is a set of reflections

35
00:02:08,460 --> 00:02:10,620
from having conducted an investigation

36
00:02:10,620 --> 00:02:13,440
into the Syrian regime prison
for Amnesty International

37
00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:15,861
working with Forensic Architecture.

38
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(crowd shouting)

39
00:02:18,810 --> 00:02:22,170
- [Narrator] Since 2011,
tens of thousands of people

40
00:02:22,170 --> 00:02:24,840
have disappeared into a
vast network of prisons

41
00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:26,880
run by the Syrian government.

42
00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:28,863
Many have been taken to Saydnaya.

43
00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:32,790
Amnesty International
and Forensic Architecture

44
00:02:32,790 --> 00:02:36,690
traveled to Turkey to meet a
group of Saydnaya survivors.

45
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We used architectural
and acoustic modeling

46
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to reconstruct the prison

47
00:02:41,220 --> 00:02:44,160
and their experiences of detention.

48
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Because the prisoners
were held in darkness,

49
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their memories depend on an
acute experience of sound.

50
00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:53,820
- I was tasked to lead the sound component

51
00:02:53,820 --> 00:02:56,700
of that investigation,
and to try and solicit

52
00:02:56,700 --> 00:02:58,080
as much information as we could

53
00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:00,570
about what was happening inside there.

54
00:03:00,570 --> 00:03:02,910
And yet, all of the
witnesses insisted to me

55
00:03:02,910 --> 00:03:04,320
that the walls of their cells

56
00:03:04,320 --> 00:03:06,390
shook from the beatings that took place

57
00:03:06,390 --> 00:03:10,140
in distant and unlocatable
areas of the prison.

58
00:03:10,140 --> 00:03:12,030
Later I understood why.

59
00:03:12,030 --> 00:03:13,290
The shape of the building,

60
00:03:13,290 --> 00:03:15,120
the dimensions of the corridors,

61
00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:16,950
meant that sounds made in the cells

62
00:03:16,950 --> 00:03:18,903
are reflected towards a central tower.

63
00:03:20,610 --> 00:03:22,890
For them to kind of claw back knowledge

64
00:03:22,890 --> 00:03:24,960
in the face of sensory deprivation

65
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was a real powerful experience.

66
00:03:27,817 --> 00:03:29,370
(person shouting)

67
00:03:29,370 --> 00:03:32,190
The wall is something that was
completely containing them.

68
00:03:32,190 --> 00:03:35,280
Yet, the leaking of the
sound through the wall,

69
00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:37,950
that was their way out to the world.

70
00:03:37,950 --> 00:03:39,603
The wall was kind of porous.

71
00:03:41,220 --> 00:03:45,810
- Room one series
closeup, take one. (claps)

72
00:03:45,810 --> 00:03:48,240
- The whole idea with Walled Unwalled

73
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was to have this performance play out

74
00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:54,300
in an old recording studio.

75
00:03:54,300 --> 00:03:57,810
Everything you see is shot
through that soundproof glass.

76
00:03:57,810 --> 00:04:00,993
It all felt like a way of
speaking about the prison.

77
00:04:01,980 --> 00:04:02,880
And in some point in the film

78
00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:04,560
you see someone flashing a light.

79
00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:06,387
She was flashing the
light because there was no

80
00:04:06,387 --> 00:04:08,370
audible communication through these walls.

81
00:04:08,370 --> 00:04:10,350
I mean, they were really soundproof.

82
00:04:10,350 --> 00:04:15,120
Now, no wall on earth is impermeable.

83
00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:19,637
Today, we're all wall, and no wall at all.

84
00:04:22,950 --> 00:04:26,190
Ironically, the more we are connected,

85
00:04:26,190 --> 00:04:31,190
the more walls are shown to
be this sort of futile thing,

86
00:04:31,230 --> 00:04:34,461
the more we're invested
in protecting the border.

87
00:04:34,461 --> 00:04:37,044
(somber music)

88
00:04:38,010 --> 00:04:40,290
Borders are not lines.

89
00:04:40,290 --> 00:04:44,433
They are these layered
spaces, rich with history.

90
00:04:50,580 --> 00:04:53,703
- There is a US border guard
sitting in that car there.

91
00:04:55,170 --> 00:04:56,640
The engine stays running

92
00:04:56,640 --> 00:04:59,891
and his eyes remain laser
focused on the main door.

93
00:04:59,891 --> 00:05:01,920
(mysterious music)

94
00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:05,430
Each visitor who crosses
the street over from the US

95
00:05:05,430 --> 00:05:08,073
must also exit back into the US.

96
00:05:08,910 --> 00:05:11,250
Those who come from
the right, from Canada,

97
00:05:11,250 --> 00:05:14,100
must not, under any circumstances,

98
00:05:14,100 --> 00:05:16,320
even if they have a valid visa,

99
00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:18,573
exit the library into the US.

100
00:05:19,650 --> 00:05:22,050
The border cannot be crossed here.

101
00:05:22,050 --> 00:05:25,413
And yet, inside it's like the
border doesn't even exist.

102
00:05:26,250 --> 00:05:30,420
Technically, Agatha Christie
sits on a shelf on US soil,

103
00:05:30,420 --> 00:05:32,763
while Iggy Pop's biography is in Canada.

104
00:05:33,780 --> 00:05:35,850
- [Film Worker] A1-Eagle,
take one. (claps)

105
00:05:35,850 --> 00:05:39,630
- This library and opera
house were built on the border

106
00:05:39,630 --> 00:05:42,189
between Canada and America.

107
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And that seemed to me as a space in which

108
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you could tell the story of borders,

109
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starting with that electrical tape

110
00:05:48,060 --> 00:05:49,710
that cuts through the library.

111
00:05:49,710 --> 00:05:52,560
Expand on that and show all of the way

112
00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:56,463
in which the border exists
as something that is absurd.

113
00:05:57,900 --> 00:06:02,190
And yet, they are this
sort of network of power

114
00:06:02,190 --> 00:06:05,973
that is being exerted, sometimes
in completely lethal ways.

115
00:06:10,860 --> 00:06:12,600
- When the murder took place,

116
00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:15,030
the murderer and the
murdered were actually

117
00:06:15,030 --> 00:06:17,463
in entirely different jurisdictions.

118
00:06:19,080 --> 00:06:21,360
Though Mesa's firearm was stretched out

119
00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:25,350
into Mexican territory,
his feet were three inches

120
00:06:25,350 --> 00:06:26,943
behind the American border.

121
00:06:28,620 --> 00:06:31,143
If Agent Mesa had stepped over the line,

122
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there would be no question of Mexico

123
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demanding his extradition
for murdering their citizen.

124
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(haunting music)

125
00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:42,453
At the Supreme Court,
a hypothetical emerged.

126
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If Mesa could be prosecuted,

127
00:06:45,900 --> 00:06:48,720
could anyone killed abroad by a US agent

128
00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:50,943
seek justice in an American court?

129
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No.

130
00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:56,340
- It was such a close decision, five-four.

131
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What swayed it was to recognize

132
00:07:00,660 --> 00:07:03,960
that should they convict Agent Mesa,

133
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they would be opening up
themselves to litigation

134
00:07:06,690 --> 00:07:11,190
of every drone strike, because
it's the same story, right?

135
00:07:11,190 --> 00:07:13,290
Someone pulls the trigger in Arizona

136
00:07:13,290 --> 00:07:15,373
and somebody dies in Yemen.

137
00:07:15,373 --> 00:07:17,956
(haunting music)

138
00:07:29,370 --> 00:07:31,740
Well, I was born in Jordan.

139
00:07:31,740 --> 00:07:33,573
But I also grew up in Yorkshire.

140
00:07:34,470 --> 00:07:37,731
And I was exposed to the
DIY music scene in Leeds.

141
00:07:37,731 --> 00:07:40,481
(dynamic music)

142
00:07:42,810 --> 00:07:44,820
I spent years abusing my hearing,

143
00:07:44,820 --> 00:07:48,030
playing in bands and
making a lot of noise.

144
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It showed me how organization around sound

145
00:07:51,030 --> 00:07:54,723
and music was a political act
to bring together communities.

146
00:07:58,230 --> 00:08:00,420
Works that I make are cross-disciplinary.

147
00:08:00,420 --> 00:08:02,982
And they demand the help
and resources of people

148
00:08:02,982 --> 00:08:05,040
who are really in their discipline.

149
00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:06,986
It's always a a team effort.

150
00:08:06,986 --> 00:08:10,986
(moaning, clanking and tapping)

151
00:08:29,951 --> 00:08:31,440
The beginning was great.
- Yeah.

152
00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:33,018
- The sort of the keys.

153
00:08:33,018 --> 00:08:33,960
- Can you hear that, I don't?
- Yeah.

154
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I think starting with those details,

155
00:08:36,030 --> 00:08:37,620
working with the knocker,

156
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and then moving between the
sort of the lollipop on that,

157
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and then to this.
- Do you like this?

158
00:08:42,420 --> 00:08:44,550
Do you like opening this, or
should I stay away from it?

159
00:08:44,550 --> 00:08:45,383
- No, no, do that.

160
00:08:45,383 --> 00:08:47,507
That was really good.
- I'm kind of like...

161
00:08:47,507 --> 00:08:49,674
(moaning)

162
00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:54,570
- I specifically didn't
want a sound effects artist

163
00:08:54,570 --> 00:08:56,970
to play those doors because
I knew that they would

164
00:08:56,970 --> 00:08:58,830
know what they're doing with them.

165
00:08:58,830 --> 00:09:02,160
That they would sort of fall
into a disciplinary mode

166
00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:04,380
in which they're able to
do things with those doors

167
00:09:04,380 --> 00:09:06,974
that is part of their professional world.

168
00:09:06,974 --> 00:09:08,790
(tapping)

169
00:09:08,790 --> 00:09:11,823
I wanted to see what else those
doors would be able to do.

170
00:09:13,230 --> 00:09:15,960
Making whale calls, then slamming them

171
00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:19,173
and bringing them back
to their door-like form.

172
00:09:20,100 --> 00:09:21,960
And that was really important to the story

173
00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:24,398
I was trying to tell
about acoustic memory.

174
00:09:24,398 --> 00:09:28,231
(mallets banging and tapping)

175
00:09:35,310 --> 00:09:38,010
Sound effects are really
key in the way we can both

176
00:09:38,010 --> 00:09:40,230
solicit memory, but the way we also

177
00:09:40,230 --> 00:09:42,183
commit those sounds to our memories.

178
00:09:45,690 --> 00:09:47,310
The doors in Saydnaya Prison

179
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had a similar effect on its survivors.

180
00:09:49,350 --> 00:09:50,910
See, none of the door sounds I played

181
00:09:50,910 --> 00:09:53,100
satisfied Samara's acoustic memory.

182
00:09:53,100 --> 00:09:54,870
We found one that was okay,

183
00:09:54,870 --> 00:09:57,020
but he kept telling me
to raise the volume.

184
00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:00,600
The sounds were getting louder and louder,

185
00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:02,430
until finally I played him the sound

186
00:10:02,430 --> 00:10:04,203
of a huge metal door slamming

187
00:10:04,203 --> 00:10:07,383
with the reverb set to
Notre Dame Cathedral.

188
00:10:09,930 --> 00:10:11,730
Upon hearing this, Samara was taken aback.

189
00:10:11,730 --> 00:10:15,090
He stopped me and he said,
this sound was present.

190
00:10:15,090 --> 00:10:17,460
This was the exact sound, not of the door,

191
00:10:17,460 --> 00:10:19,650
but the sound of sheets of bread

192
00:10:19,650 --> 00:10:22,473
being dropped to the
ground outside my cell.

193
00:10:23,615 --> 00:10:25,865
(pounding)

194
00:10:27,810 --> 00:10:29,460
We would use a lot of sound effects

195
00:10:29,460 --> 00:10:32,160
for those ear witness
interviews to really get to

196
00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:34,020
the sound that we were talking about.

197
00:10:34,020 --> 00:10:36,123
And sort of also place them in space.

198
00:10:37,170 --> 00:10:40,499
And so I built this
inventory of sound effects.

199
00:10:40,499 --> 00:10:44,070
(banging tapping and popping)

200
00:10:44,070 --> 00:10:45,960
Based on all the legal
cases I'd worked on,

201
00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:48,450
what would I've used
in a case where I need

202
00:10:48,450 --> 00:10:52,058
to recreate a ricochet off
a border fence in Palestine?

203
00:10:52,058 --> 00:10:54,840
(banging and crashing)

204
00:10:54,840 --> 00:10:58,170
They really were very important
in the case of Saydnaya.

205
00:10:58,170 --> 00:10:59,640
The metal door, a wooden door,

206
00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:02,460
and a car door, adapted for my means.

207
00:11:02,460 --> 00:11:04,860
And the idea that you
could really construct

208
00:11:04,860 --> 00:11:07,893
a whole array of door sounds
from just this one instrument.

209
00:11:09,510 --> 00:11:11,234
Goalkeeper gloves.
The granite stone tiles.

210
00:11:11,234 --> 00:11:14,070
Green coconut, shouting.
Ice cream truck.

211
00:11:14,070 --> 00:11:16,024
Where is the gun?
Music box.

212
00:11:16,024 --> 00:11:19,107
(airplane whooshing)

213
00:11:27,670 --> 00:11:30,210
Over the last 15, 16 years, Israeli jets

214
00:11:30,210 --> 00:11:32,850
and drones flying over
Lebanon have created

215
00:11:32,850 --> 00:11:36,273
a kind of acoustic fearscape
for people living in Lebanon.

216
00:11:38,490 --> 00:11:42,047
Air Pressure began as a
acoustic investigation.

217
00:11:42,047 --> 00:11:44,964
(keyboard tapping)

218
00:11:45,990 --> 00:11:48,030
It's a website that sought to produce

219
00:11:48,030 --> 00:11:49,860
some understanding
about what was happening

220
00:11:49,860 --> 00:11:51,273
in the air over Lebanon.

221
00:11:53,231 --> 00:11:56,550
I'm trying to, you know, Shazam the skies.

222
00:11:56,550 --> 00:12:00,180
Hear a unmanned aerial
vehicle, identify that.

223
00:12:00,180 --> 00:12:01,740
Hear a fighter jet, identify that.

224
00:12:01,740 --> 00:12:03,120
And then start to hear the difference

225
00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:05,767
between an F16, an F35.

226
00:12:08,940 --> 00:12:11,370
We produced the first database

227
00:12:11,370 --> 00:12:13,770
of these military aircraft in the sky.

228
00:12:13,770 --> 00:12:16,143
And the numbers were staggering.

229
00:12:17,160 --> 00:12:20,614
22,111 of them over the last 15 years.

230
00:12:20,614 --> 00:12:23,197
(somber music)

231
00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:29,370
And you see them interlinking
and overlapping over time.

232
00:12:29,370 --> 00:12:30,870
It's not a map of a territory,

233
00:12:30,870 --> 00:12:33,510
but it's actually a kind
of cartography of pressure

234
00:12:33,510 --> 00:12:34,980
that's being exerted down.

235
00:12:34,980 --> 00:12:36,690
It happens to be the shape of Lebanon

236
00:12:36,690 --> 00:12:38,790
simply because the aircrafts have covered

237
00:12:38,790 --> 00:12:40,323
the entirety of the country.

238
00:12:42,900 --> 00:12:47,070
This is not a work about whose
air it is being violated.

239
00:12:47,070 --> 00:12:49,740
The air doesn't belong
to the Lebanese either.

240
00:12:49,740 --> 00:12:52,590
It's a work about how
you turn the air violent,

241
00:12:52,590 --> 00:12:55,833
and how sound is really an
effective way to do that.

242
00:12:56,842 --> 00:12:58,800
(airplane whooshing)

243
00:12:58,800 --> 00:13:01,920
You can see every tweet and video made

244
00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:04,710
referring to these aircraft in the sky.

245
00:13:04,710 --> 00:13:06,540
You see people joking.

246
00:13:06,540 --> 00:13:08,550
Some people say, "Oh,
look at these planes.

247
00:13:08,550 --> 00:13:11,070
They're going so low they're
gonna cut my laundry wires."

248
00:13:11,070 --> 00:13:13,710
Other people, you can tell they're scared.

249
00:13:13,710 --> 00:13:16,230
They say, "Look what they
have in their arsenal.

250
00:13:16,230 --> 00:13:17,730
May God protect us."

251
00:13:17,730 --> 00:13:19,744
Other people simply use this hashtag

252
00:13:19,744 --> 00:13:20,580
حربي بالاجواء

253
00:13:20,580 --> 00:13:22,280
which means war in the atmosphere.

254
00:13:24,690 --> 00:13:26,850
The website circulated very heavily

255
00:13:26,850 --> 00:13:29,190
because no one had ever
done that work before.

256
00:13:29,190 --> 00:13:32,700
And in fact, the Lebanese
government who contacted me later

257
00:13:32,700 --> 00:13:36,116
had basically told me that
they had never even done this.

258
00:13:36,116 --> 00:13:39,180
(airplane whooshing)

259
00:13:39,180 --> 00:13:41,370
When I was producing Air Pressure,

260
00:13:41,370 --> 00:13:43,560
and it got all this
international attention,

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it occurred to me that 10 years had passed

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of doing this kind of
acoustic investigation,

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and that it needed its own kind of space.

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Well I decided to start
this agency called Earshot.

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(dynamic music)

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We're a small team of people.

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There's been a greater
awareness of why sound matters

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for open source investigations.

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I'd learned enough doing these projects

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that I could also start
to train other people

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to do this work, and we could
start to build our own agency

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for acoustic and audio analysis.

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I wanna build greater cognizance for what

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good listening can do, and
what story sound can tell.

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There's so much more to do,

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and so many other ways in
which we can give people

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the space and time to be heard.

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(dynamic music)
(people chattering)