This week I chose to research Michael McLoughlin. McLoughlin is a visual artist from Ireland who’s been making sound work, sculptures, and installations since the 1990’s. The majority of his work examines mechanisms of social interactions and the infrastructures that support it. He explores contemporary art typically through public spaces. His most famous installation is titles An Audio map of Limerick. It comprises of 60 speakers hung from the ceiling that allows the audience to walk through and listen. On the speakers are audio conversations between people in the city, that McLoughlin recorded, representing society’s in its broadest form.

There are two reasons I was drawn to Michael McLoughlin. The first is because of his use of human interaction within his works. Over the past couple years, my interest for human interaction, expression, emotions, and communication has grown strong with my art. Of course I have my own views and opinions about how I think art and interactions are related, but artists like McLoughlin are the very artists I love to research and try to understand. The second reason I was fascinated with him was for his use of audio in his installations. Audio installations aren’t something I’m typically drawn to and I haven’t had much experience with them.

An Audio map of Limerick, 2016