Summoned Voices enables multiple individuals or groups to access the work at once. It also means they share and contribute to the same large pool of information.

Upon interaction the individual's voice is stored by the computer system, which additionally, analyses the speech for salient characteristics. The analysis is sonic rather than semantic and is therefore language independent. Charac- teristics include such things as: phrase length, pitch and pitch 'shape', loudness, 'roughness', dynamic range etc. Once analysed, the system makes comparisons with previous recordings, finding similar patterns of speech in a database. After speaking, the individual's voice is played back over a loudspeaker system with voice fragments from the past overlaid and juxtaposed. In this fashion, people communicate with past events, past thoughts and expressions - the qualities of their voice summoning forgotten messages from the installation.

The public lends something of themselves through their engagement, and the work is continually replenished and marked with their imprint. Far from passive or fixed, Summoned Voices is an evolving environment where the installation acts as medium, providing dialogue between past and present.

The work was premiered at the Art In Output Festival at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Netherlands in February-March 2003. Three door in- stallations were assembled on-site using local recycled building materials and the computer system was installed with a small database of sounds prepared in advance in Australia. This database ac- ted as a seed for interaction. Within hours of opening to the public, the new work transformed into something very Dutch, taking on the content, colour and rhythms of the language. It encapsulated the thoughts, expressions, wishes and humour of the various groups that engaged with it. The ambience of the