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Statement:

I am a conceptual artist who seeks to transform peoples perception of place through the creation of mediated experiences.

Making site-specific installations, public events, interventions, audio or video pieces I seek to frame and re- frame a perceived reality by disrupting the unconsidered.

The window is a repeated motif that I use to journey into a myopic world, reflect on an aesthetic experience or open out a world of possibility. The frame – either physical or metaphoric, being as much about that which is concealed as that which is illuminated.

Each piece I make is heavily research led and I adopt methods common in documentary, historic, psycho geographic or phenomenological practices in order to make sense of place. Searching for narratives, anecdotes and local knowledge that illuminate a place in time and describe something of the human condition, its relationship to place, landscape, architecture or currents of ideas. Drawing on this research I look for ways to place what I have found back in the public arena. Trying to distil what I have found out, or extrapolate meaning from the mountains and mountains of footage that I tend to collect.

Biog: Jennie Savage has a research based practice which explores the place between public spaces, town planning, constructed landscapes and the human story: the lived lives and personal narratives connected to those sites. Working through a process that uses archiving and intervention she seeks to map the other life of a place or community in order to reveal a complex situation, a micro- structure or simply an unheard voice.

‘Your Eyes Are A Window: A Sound Track For The Horizon’ (2008) invited viewers to explore the mirror we are faced with when looking out to sea: the timeless observation that when facing a volume of constantly moving water, we somehow face ourselves. Over a couple of weeks I met with many beach lovers and posed this question. Their answers (– mainly startling profound!) were then used as the basis of a sound piece which viewers could experience on wireless headphones in a specifically installed temporary structure. The ‘cinema’ was positioned over looking the beach with a large window overlooking the sea- where the screen should be in an ordinary cinema. Viewers listened to this 20-minute ‘soundtrack’ whilst watching beach life unfolding in front of them in the real time.

Out in The World: An Exploration Of The View (2006) Was originally made during a 3 month residency in Quebec City and was conceived as a sound track which viewers experienced whilst looking out the window of my studio, across the city. The audio narration describes a cinematic map to reveal connections between the various architectural, transport and social networks that constitute the city, whilst also revealing reflections and responses I observed during my stay. Following the audio installation of this work I then made a film to accompany the sound track that was subsequently shown in Chapter Theater later the same year.

The 20 min site-specific film ‘A Million Moments’ (2008) also used wireless headphones to communicate a narrated voice over to viewers who were watching a large screen installed in Cardiff’s, Wyndham Arcade. The film – 20 minutes of actuality – real time documentary footage, invited viewers to deconstruct the image whilst listening to a narration which responded to both the activity on screen and the arcades real and imagined past.

In the same vain, and as part of the same project the, audio documentary ‘The Museum Of The Moment’ (2009) invited walkers to navigate their way through the city’s arcades listening to musing and reflections both on the specifics of the city and the related questions about the nature of architecture, economy and place.

‘A Guide to Getting Lost’ (2007- ongoing) is a series of audio walks I have recorded in 'other' cities, (India, Copenhagen, Marrakesh, London) a Situationist derive which invites walkers to re- map my walk in another place. Walking with an MP3 player and listening to the sounds, descriptions and directions from an unknown city, the walker becomes lost in familiar surroundings. This piece has been shown on several occasions as a one off events – people turn up with MP3 players and download walks, leaving from a central point and returning with tales of spooky synchronicity where the sound track and world around them strangely seem to match; creating maybe a third reality.

For other examples see web archive.