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Viewer using Halsey Burgund’s interactive audio, “Round,” 2008.

2-29 or 3-7 must (or change dates)

THE ALDRICH CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM ‘HALSEY BURGUND: ROUND’ W/1 cut

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RIDGEFIELD, CONN. — In a culture where technology enables source information to be collected and maintained by means of collaboration, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum will present “Halsey Burgund: Round,” an exhibition that will introduce, on March 9, an innovative audio tour guide that operates on a similar premise. The exhibition will remain on view through July 27.

“Round” is an audio installation that will solicit spoken voice contributions from visitors and use them as part of a musical composition intended to be listened to while viewing the work in the galleries. The interactive audio experience will allow visitors to hear a diverse range of voices — including artists, curators and visitors — sharing their perspectives about the exhibitions, and to add their responses to the mix.

The name of the exhibition alludes to both a musical round and the age-old Arthurian legend about the Knights of Camelot who sat at a round table, affording no one person a privileged position. Burgund explains, “Equality of opinion and the opportunity for two-way dialogue are core ideas of this project.”

“Round” will enable visitors to experience other Aldrich exhibitions on view — specifically “Charlotte Schulz: An Insufficiency in Our Screens” and “Painting the Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture” — in a new way. The handheld tablet computers will provide patrons the opportunity to select criteria for the types of voices they would like to hear while looking at the art. 

Burgund says, “The comments will be collected in a database of recording and subsequently incorporated into the piece in real-time using various computer algorithms and custom software. Thus, there will be a continual loop of opinion and emotional response, all contained within a musical work.”

The flexible infrastructure developed and built for the installation will become the foundation for “Pause, Play,” a program for future audio tours at the museum.

Burgund is a musician and sound artist who lives and works outside Boston. Both his installations and musical performances make extensive use of spoken human voice recordings as musical elements, alongside traditional and electronic instruments.

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is at 258 Main Street. For more information, www.aldrichart.org or 203-438-4519.