Click to hear Karito:
AUDIO MAP
3MIN EXERPT
Karito has been exhibited at The UN General Assembly in 2008 and The Henley Festival in 2014.
It is an audio sculpture made from interpretations of the 192 national anthems of the member states of the United Nations layered upon one another and projected simultaneously from multiple sound sources.
The random juxtaposition of the various themes and instruments creates a new piece, the structure and tone of which are determined by the listeners relative position within Karito at any particular moment.
The individual anthems work together to create a greater whole.
Occasional dissonances do occur, but invariably time passes and something harmonically beautiful and surprising takes place a few bars later.
This musical structure, of bringing individual parts together as a new whole being experienced from different perspectives, echoes what I believe to be at the core of any human interaction.
KARITO is the Esperanto word meaning love of one’s neighbour.
The individual anthems were recorded in the same key by violin, viola, cello, bass, trumpet, trombone, guitar and piano, and then mixed separately to create 1536 individual music files.
The music files are programmed in random shuffle mode on several MP3 players.
The random selection of instruments and themes from the various sound sources makes it impossible to predict what will happen next.
The Logo is made up of 192 interconnecting circles, reinforcing the overall theme — a circle alone is symbolic and a thing of beauty - however when combined with others something more powerful is created.
“When creating this work several questions presented themselves” said Barratt. “What is a nation state?, What is the relationship between myself and the rest of mankind? What is the function of identity?
The work does not answer those unswerable questions but creates a context for contemplating all of them.”