David Haines
Haines developed a reactive soundscape titled Reverse Time Gate which responded to the multifaceted thoroughfare of Central Station’s tunnel, adjoining Sydney's George and Devonshire Streets.

The work creates a unique sonic experience as commuters pass through the tunnel reversing the sounds created within the space via custom electronics. The effect will be of entering a mysterious transit gate in which time is moving backwards. The cacophonic sonic journey which the tunnel presents on a day to day basis was not be infringed upon, but existing sounds: buskers, footsteps and monologues were lifted, and replayed in reverse, creating a series of emotive chapters. This work acknowledged the characters and atmospheres which make up the tunnel, but also presented a new 'psychic architecture' which subtly altered the experience of the commuter’s underground commotion.

Haines' work references both the virtual and lived environment, activating the interior space of the imagination. He considers public space, and the rest of the world, to be a saturated, polluted electronic environment. Highlighting the ruptures and slippages of our sense of order seemed provocative when relating Haines' practice to the context of Central Station’s tunnel, where the sound of cultures colliding occurs daily.

Reverse time gate sound intervention location, Devonshire Street tunnel, Central Station, Sydney © David Haines

video still from David Haines installation, Sao Paulo Biennal
© David Haines