before Z axis (feedback loop of commensurability), 2017

The installation collects information from the viewers/users at regular intervals, translates this information into a coordinate (x, y), and plots it on the grid in the form of a notification tone emitted via one of the speaker units. Through the process of experiencing the piece, the users become abstracted and reduced to a single node on the grid, while their data continues to influence their behvaviour as they navigate through the piece. The process emphasizes the ways in which one ‘becomes’ the data that has come to represent them, confounding the relationship and questioning the neutrality between the subject and their data-representation. The sounds might induce a Pavlovian response where the viewers are summoned to voluntarily approach or compelled to avoid the source, foregrounding the agency information and communication technology (ICT) has in determining and priming human behaviours/responses and ways of thinking. The grid functions as both an emblem of ICT-facilitated capitalism and a particular epistemological method. 

This project was generously funded by a Canada Council for the Arts Production Grant for Media Artists.

 

documentation - Vancouver 2017