Listen Up

After living, for many years, in an apartment seemingly made from Kleenex, eavesdropping is sort of like eating trans-fat: You try so hard not to do it, but occasionally it's unavoidable--you do it against your will, accidentally or say "Screw it. This sounds too good." Either way it goes, there's a certain amount of justification to go through afterward. The guilt, the "well, they should move to the other room" defense, the realization that someone else hears you pee half the time. Artist and UTD associate professor Frank Dufour offers guilt-free, creative eavesdropping--for a purpose, no less--with his new installation at Centraltrak, Highest Fidelity: I Am A Sound Technician. Visitors have the opportunity to listen through peepholes-turned-"aural apertures" on the doors of artists lofts in the gallery's long corridor. The sounds may be synthesized, but the action of listening--artistically sanctioned or otherwise--still brings on a range of reaction from grimace to devilish grin. Highest Fidelity runs from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays through March 18 at 800 Exposition Ave. Visit centraltrak.org.
Wednesdays-Saturdays. Starts: Jan. 30. Continues through March 18, 2009