Installation with sound, soft sculpture, stands, digital speakers and found speakers, dimensions variable
David Gauntlett and Paola Poletto, 2023
Presented as part of Institution of Knowledge
Curated by Natalie Loveless and Geoffrey Rockwell
University of Alberta, May 2023
Sound of Wonder, David Gauntlett and Paola Poletto, 2023 
This image above, entitled Creativity (long form), made in 2023, is part of a score composed of panoramic photographs of fabrics I've used to weave into what I am calling reverse megaphones. The score is interpreted from a library of voice sounds from colleagues collected by David Gauntlett and I and presented as part of the Institution of Knowledge, curated by Natalie Loveless and Geoffrey Rockwell, University of Alberta, May 2023. I performed a written text in response to the gathering of people for the project on on Thursday, May 18 in a panel called Being in the University: Shaping and Being Shaped, with Lisa Ortiz-Vilarelle and Oliver Rossier, moderated by Natalie. As an artist, a part-time doctoral student and full-time museum administrator, I am thinking through what it means to be in institutions of power (familial, bureaucratic and artistic as noted eloquently by Dr. Zeynep Devrim Gursel) like universities and museums specifically.
Sound of Wonder, the score (part of the installation with the same name), is printed in 5 parts: creativity, wonder, knowledge, curiosity, joy. There is a signed edition of 5, each with 6 photographic prints on rag paper, printed front and back, 12" x 18" landscape on 3 sheets, like music in a loose leaf book. The credits page also notes a presentation of the score at the Italian Cultural Institute in Toronto, April 2023, as part of an International Seminar on Critical Approaches to Dante, How does it feel? Dante's Emotions Today at University of Toronto, with a thought on joy.
For the installation in Edmonton, the score sat on a music stand, next to the 5 reverse megaphones.
Here's a close up of a reverse megaphone. Inside was a small speaker emitting sounds. Each speaker was emitting sounds of the 5 words; ie. this one was emitting sounds of joy. Photo credit: Michael Woolley
Here's me performing my text during the gathering. Photo credit: Michael Woolley
This is David and I talking about the project as it was developing before I headed off to Edmonton to install the work and gather with everyone.
David and I have contributed an interview style response for a forthcoming book about the projects that were made as part of the Institution of Knowledge.