ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL
for art, technology & society:
A Digital New Deal I 2021
Chicago Garden, Where We Emerge
Low Fidelity, sculptural installation
vintage (1960s-70s) acrylic AM transistor radio photo cubes on solar powered rotating platforms. Polaroid 600 film photographs (2020-present) using a Polaroid multi-image lens on Polaroid 600 One Step Autofocus and Polaroid 600 One Step Flash cameras.
2021
vintage (1960s-70s) acrylic AM transistor radio photo cubes on solar powered rotating platforms. Polaroid 600 film photographs (2020-present) using a Polaroid multi-image lens on Polaroid 600 One Step Autofocus and Polaroid 600 One Step Flash cameras.
2021
“Low Fidelity” is the first iteration of an interactive sculptural installation. It consists of ten vintage AM transistor radio photo cubes, and 40 Polaroid 600 film photographs taken using a multi-image lens. They rotate atop solar-powered platforms to allow an uninterrupted 360 degree view. The radios play simultaneously; their signal strengths vary and are highly susceptible to interference from passing electronics and each other, which leads to highly unpredictable and often low audio fidelity.
I capture intimate moments on public display; by combining narrative storytelling with glimpses into reality I seek to translate them into a generative experience using disembodied stereoscopic visuals, motion, and sound. It’s easy to overlook the value of the intimate moments when you’re living them. I endeavor to capture and convey their nostalgic value as well as question the credibility of our memory recall.
Each of these photos illustrate a snapshot of the cerebral procedures by which we process and store memories. It’s the memory and the moment either in the midst of merging into one or being split in two; the fractured reinvention of a once-clear event. When coupled with the AM transistor radio cubes the nostalgic reach of the photos is amplified. Just like Polaroid photography, from the golden age of radio to the kitsch resurgence in the 60s and 70s, the small but powerful portable transistor radio has etched itself into the public memory.
The resulting interactivity from the curation of the photos in each radio cube manifests itself as a cognitive glitch in which everyones’ equally flawed memories of a past event are competing for airwaves, resulting in signal interference and distorting the true memory even further. It is one, or many, minds attempting to create a single cohesive, convincing narrative to accept as the truth.
I capture intimate moments on public display; by combining narrative storytelling with glimpses into reality I seek to translate them into a generative experience using disembodied stereoscopic visuals, motion, and sound. It’s easy to overlook the value of the intimate moments when you’re living them. I endeavor to capture and convey their nostalgic value as well as question the credibility of our memory recall.
Each of these photos illustrate a snapshot of the cerebral procedures by which we process and store memories. It’s the memory and the moment either in the midst of merging into one or being split in two; the fractured reinvention of a once-clear event. When coupled with the AM transistor radio cubes the nostalgic reach of the photos is amplified. Just like Polaroid photography, from the golden age of radio to the kitsch resurgence in the 60s and 70s, the small but powerful portable transistor radio has etched itself into the public memory.
The resulting interactivity from the curation of the photos in each radio cube manifests itself as a cognitive glitch in which everyones’ equally flawed memories of a past event are competing for airwaves, resulting in signal interference and distorting the true memory even further. It is one, or many, minds attempting to create a single cohesive, convincing narrative to accept as the truth.