According to the French government’s 1% guidelines, one per cent of the total amount spent in the construction of any public building is to be allocated for the realization of site-specific artworks. In this context, David Jourdan and Yuji Oshima were commissioned to create a permanent installation for the new building of the ministry, 182 rue Saint-Honoré, Paris, completed in February 2005.
A temperamental audio playback is set off by accident—one chance in a hundred—in two elevators at the ministry. For once, the 1% is indeed one per cent. The issue is deceptive musak.
Every user of the elevator who presses a button participates in a game in which there is a limited number of possible actions, but a real 1% chance of winning. In short, a mere lottery. When one wins, the reward is an illuminated animation on the cabin ceiling accompanied by a brief audio composition. For that purpose, Jourdan and Oshima invited 17 artists / groups to create 15 to 90 seconds of sound compositions of previously unreleased audio material. Assuming that on average the cabin carries another passenger going to a different floor, a user who takes the elevator 10 times a day, 5 days a week, has one chance per week of winning. With the exception of this brief event, nothing else out of the ordinary occurs.
Disc 1
Alejandra Salinas and Aeron Bergman
Colleen
Constanze Schweiger and David Jourdan
Dat Politics
Dorit Chrysler
Eugene Chadbourne
Felix Kubin
Four Tet
Disc 2
gelitin
L?K?O
John McEntire and Jeff Parker
Nobukazu Takemura
Rashim
Sun Ok Papi K.O.
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