Project Proposal: RandomAccessMemory

Posted on October 10, 2016 Updated on October 11, 2016

Project Proposal:

The space that will be transformed into an existential dimension will consist of a door that doesn’t have a prerequisite for entry or denial.  Each person will approach a door that has the words:

ENTER

OPTIONAL 

GO

STOP

UNKNOWN

OPEN

These are guidance points for the audience responder, the next move from the audience interaction is my way of exploring the wonderment aesthetic. The use of a movement sensor will operate the lights underneath each word, which will be completely randomised and have no influence on the person and could be different on multiple interactions with the same people. I want to explore the idea of class and how the choices and decisions controlled by the digital realm has no ‘cost of entry’.Perhaps a strange take on the actions of the internet promoting anonymity, and how the rear of the door that is  covered in black spray paint and wax could represent another dimension of the internet.

After attending New Romance: art and the posthuman at the Museum of Contemporary Art I found Patricia Piccinini & Peter Hennessey’s work , Alone with the gods, 2016 very interesting in the way that it could transform everyday household furniture and items into some kind of surrealist or uncanny space. I drew particular attention to their subtle use of wax and crystals in the way they could allude to a new experience. I took this creative element along with a childhood experience that I associated with wonderment was the arrangement of magnetic letters on a fridge. This idea fascinated me as a kid as if I had something within the food storage that couldn’t be opened if i arranged the words “No”.

(Patricia Piccinini & Peter Hennessey, Alone with the gods, 2016, installation view, New Romance: art and the posthuman, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, mixed media, image courtesy and © the artist, photograph: Alex Davies)

“explore ideas of secret societies, parallel worlds, genetic modification, evolution and mutation in their new collaborative workAlone with the gods (2016). Designed to be an ‘immersive narrative space’ the installation is based on a story the artists wrote about a fictional isolationist cult.” (MCA, 2016)

The idea and the organisation of the work will have a door frame connected to a pair of ropes that gives the idea of hanging in space. The front side will have an LED lighting arrangement (currently using Christmas lights) that will be hooked up to an arduino movement sensor so that when the audience member gets close enough, the sensor will trigger a random word to light up via the coloured lights. The word that is given to that person will hopefully trigger a curiosity element or perhaps even a rebellious streak for them to look around the behind of the door. This will hopefully lead them to discover the free-lance nature the internet creates and that we’re free to understand the world behind instructions. I like the idea that i’ll have no control over the responses nor whether the “instructions” on the front of the door will be obeyed by the responders.

From the above prototype, the changes in the lights arrangement and the times they come on will be varied slightly different when the movement sensor is added. This is to showcase the aesthetic I’m aiming when they change individually. Through class discussion and feedback when presenting the prototype I was told that the general colour arrangement was an aesthetic in itself. I was also encouraged to explore a lighting set up that would make the words easier to read. A suggestion that was also an interesting interpretation was the choice to leave the lights all on and turn off the desired response as an instruction. The next step with this project is to acquire technical support so that I can understand how the lights can be wired and arranged to the intentional purposes. The location was something that was given a warm reception to have it slightly in the middle of the space so that it wasn’t really essential to see the worded side of the door first, perhaps showcasing the accidental nature of wonderment. Perhaps the most interesting suggestion is the use of a mirror at the rear of the door to represent perhaps a parallel view. The idea that if you go against the authoritative instruction you’ve only got yourself or your own reflection to ponder on.