Audio Obscura at St Pancras International

Audio Obscura at St Pancras International

12 September, 2011
by: Jumanah

Jumanah Younis wanders around St Pancras International listening to people's inner thoughts.

Train stations are an ideal place to people-watch. Amid the hustle and bustle of businessmen running for trains, travellers being reunited with loved ones, people arriving and leaving new or familiar cities, are hundreds of different stories. Audio Obscura, an aural experience conceived by poet and novelist Lavinia Greenlaw and commissioned by Artangel, is inspired by the possibility of these everyday dramas. I pick up a set of headphones from the Audio Obscura booth in St Pancras International Station to see what it’s about

I’m advised at the booth that the audio is half an hour long and I can walk anywhere I want with it, except for leaving the station. The headphones block out almost all surrounding sounds, isolating you from the sense of urgency that seems to be driving everyone else. It’s a disconcerting experience – cut off from the real sounds of the train station, there’s a distinctly cinematic quality to people going about their daily business; it’s a bit like watching a silent movie.

I start to wander around and a voice creeps in; a woman bids me simply to “listen”. Different narrative voices cut into each other; it’s like eavesdropping on lots of people's trains of thought simultaneously. Some are frantic, some angry, others pensive; a man curses the lateness of the trains, a woman laments her list of errands: “When am I going to get round to the garden?” she frets. There is a kind of overall narrator who occasionally interjects, but only to make vaguely philosophical statements in a French accent, rather than explain to you what is going on. It would be ridiculous, except that by this stage I’m really enjoying the whole experience, and taking it completely seriously. The voices talking have disparate concerns; they are random individuals absorbed by their own problems (a fitting soundtrack to a busy London train station).

Loitering on the escalators, I can’t help but stare at a few people passing by and try to fit a voice to their faces. What would I hear if I could plug the audio jack into their heads, instead of the small black box from the booth? With half an hour inside the station and no train to catch, I relax and begin to enjoy the environment itself; sunlight is streaming in through panes of glass in the convex roof, and a pleasant breeze blows through the upper concourse. I watch commuters rush around while I move at my leisure, all the while being fed a stream of consciousness which subverts my own train of thought, makes me look at people differently, helps me decide which way to walk. I take the escalators up, the lift back down, sit on the benches at a platform; watch the trains, watch the people, and wander round and round until I start to feel like I’m actually getting lost inside this peculiar world of voices.

Some of the monologues are very personal, and it’s a bizarre experience, hearing someone’s private thoughts while being surrounded by strangers. The narrators are convincing, too, which is important. They have different accents and different concerns and sound like plausible people, making you all the more inclined to attribute them to faces you see around you. At times, I find myself half expecting someone to turn around and start talking to me or scolding me for listening in on their thoughts.

I’m sitting down on the railing of the upper concourse, watching a flood of people come off a train and scurry onto the escalators, when the audio track comes to an end. I’m quite reluctant to take the headphones off and re-enter the world of train announcements and hollow background noise, and everything feels a little bit muffled for the rest of the day. Cleverly conceived and produced, Audio Obscura is both surreal and unsettling. 

Audio Obscura continues until 23rd October 2011. Headsets are available daily 12pm-8pm, last headsets dispensed at 7.30pm. Entry is free, no booking required.

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Jumanah