Image: Phoenix Art Museum, New York
Phoenix Art Museum is presenting Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s 'The Instrument of Troubled Dreams', an interactive audio installation described by the museum as being on view in Arizona for the first time. The exhibition opened in July 2026 and is scheduled through July 26, 2026, in the Lower Level Katz Wing at the museum’s Phoenix campus. The presentation is also identified by the museum as the second showing of the artists’ work at Phoenix Art Museum, following Cardiff and Miller’s video installation 'The Berlin Files' in the 2006 exhibition 'Constructing New Berlin'.
Cardiff and Miller have collaborated for more than 35 years. Born in small rural towns in Canada, Janet Cardiff was born in 1957 and George Bures Miller in 1960. The museum says they work with sound and new media technologies including film, robotics and advanced audio-recording techniques to create immersive, interactive installations that explore memory, narrative, space and time. Their practice, as presented by Phoenix Art Museum, invites visitors to become active participants in how stories are shaped by what they hear and by the choices they make.
At the center of 'The Instrument of Troubled Dreams' is a replica of a 1960s Mellotron, transformed from a tape-based instrument into a storytelling device. Phoenix Art Museum says the work’s 72 keys each trigger a different sound effect, vocal track or musical part, allowing participants to assemble their own film-like soundtrack. The installation plays those sounds back in full spherical surround sound through 23 speakers that encircle the listener-performer, creating what the museum calls a dystopian story of their own making.
The museum’s July newsletter framed the installation as part of a summer program of new and limited-run exhibitions, placing it alongside several other openings and final chances in the galleries. But the Cardiff and Miller work is the only one singled out as the museum’s PhxArt Spotlight in the newsletter, where visitors are invited to “sit down and play.” That description matches the exhibition page, which emphasizes direct participation rather than passive viewing and highlights the work’s emphasis on narrative construction through sound.
Phoenix Art Museum identifies 'The Instrument of Troubled Dreams' as an installation on loan from the Diane and Bruce Halle Collection. The site also notes exhibition support from the Rob Walton, Jordan Rose, and Rose Law Group Fund for Contemporary Art, and states that all exhibitions are underwritten by the Phoenix Art Museum Exhibition Excellence Fund, founded by The Opatrny Family Foundation with additional major support from Joan Cremin. The exhibition page includes a press release titled “Phoenix Art Museum presents interactive audio installation by renowned artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller.”
The museum’s exhibition listing places the installation in the Lower Level Katz Wing and describes it as ongoing during its run. It is part of a broader exhibition schedule at Phoenix Art Museum that, in July 2026, also included 'Modern Treads: The Discount Tire Poster Collection' and the closing weeks of 'Florentine Baroque: The Haukohl Collection', with 'Ecstatic Time: The Alchemy of Photography' and the '2025 Arizona Artist Awards' set to open later in the month. Within that lineup, 'The Instrument of Troubled Dreams' is the museum’s latest presentation of an immersive sound environment built for active visitor participation.
