Tim Hinman : ‘In real life there’s always a day after the story ends’
Text: Signe Hansen | Photo © Kim Matthai Leland
T im Hinman, half of the duo behind Denmark’s most popular podcast, Third Ear, is exhibiting a new sound installation at Nordkystens Kunsttriennal (North Coast Art Triennal). Scan Magazine spoke to the Brit about the artwork and why it, unlike his podcasts, has no ending or beginning.
Having worked in Danish radio and podcast broadcasting since 1996, British Hinman has not just built up a name, and – together with the co-creator of Third Ear, Krister Moltzen – earned a handful of international awards. He has also built up a remarkable archive of human stories and voices. It was that archive and those voices that inspired him to create his new artwork at the North Coast Art Triennal. “During the last 20 years, I’ve been immersed with other people’s voices, the voices I’ve recorded over the years – I’ve kept every single one of them, and a lot of the things people talk about in the interviews are very significant, life-changing events, so in many ways the voices represent the full range of possible human experiences,” says Hinman. “My idea was to use an open archive and play it back more or less randomly, so that no two people will get the same mixture of words. I imagine it a bit like walking down a busy high-street without the traffic noise, so it is just the drifting voices giving you that sense of time and place.”
While it is not the first sound installation Hinman has done, the Brit is undeniably best known for his award-winning podcast series, Third Ear. Started in 2009, the podcast, which tells the extraordinary stories of ordinary real-life people, was the first of its kind in Denmark and initially had a very modest audience of around 100 listeners. Its popularity has, however, grown explosively, with its most popular episode downloaded more than half a million times.
The art installation will, says Hinman, be a chance to do something completely different. “This is a great opportunity to do something more personal, more informal. A podcast has a very linear structure – the art piece is the opposite, it’s completely non-linear and constantly changing; there’s no beginning and no end. That way, it’s more like real life: in real life, the story never ends, things keep moving and there’s always a day after the ending of the story.”
Hinman’s work will be exhibited at the Rudolph Tegners Museum & Statuepark
as part of the North Coast Art Triennal from 22 June to 22 October 2019.
Web: www.nkkt.dk
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