com-mun-i-cate
With advertisers, the government and the media all vying for our attention, attempting to infiltrate our subconcious and influence everything from our thoughts to our decisions, this work is an exploration of the effects of the invasive
nature of the
information age.
The phone has been chosen to explore this concept because it is an excellent example of an object of convenience that is increasingly being hijacked for ulterior motives by advertisers, under the guise of it being an obvious and legitimate marketing target.
Method ::
Create an industrial environment wired that appears to be wired for communication. But instead of being a pull environment, it is a push environment. Phones installed within the environment are not for the audience to call out on but are busy projecting their own messages. Each phone has a different low quality [8-bit] sound recording whispering through it, attempting to infiltrate the subconcious and influence the audience.
Materials used :: [thanks mostly to Reverse Garbage, Marrickville]
- Discarded public phone box handsets
- PVC pipes, star posts
- Communication paraphernalia: dead mobile phones, TV's, signs, antenna etc
- Cabling, wires, coloured rope, neon lights
- Various sound bytes: radio plays, lectures, advertising jingles, random conversations, experimental soundscapes, snippets from TV shows.
- Computer and home-made switch box network to connect and control each phone
Performed ::
- January 2001: Summer Dreaming Festival, Peats Ridge (Gosford)
- March 2001: Loveseat Exotic Erotica
COM-MUN-I-CATE :: VARIATION IDEAS
- Set up recording devices elsewhere in the vicinity of the installation to record random conversations which could then be fed to one of the phones.
- Allow the phones to record participants comments [if any] and feed that to another phone.
- Have some phones ring or try to attract people's attention if audience members are within a certain distance of them.
- Broadcast the installation on the web, encouraging web users to record their own messages to be piped through the phones.
A collaborative project between Bea and Adam Pierce.