Subverting and reversing communication mediums

“The medium is the message because it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action. The effects of technology do not occur at the level of opinions or concepts, but alter sense ratios or patterns of perception steadily and without any resistance.”

– Marshall McLuhan, “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man“, 1964

Heavily influenced by Marshall McLuhan’s theories of the ‘medium is the message’ and ‘hot v’s cold media’ and drawing on the notions of ‘push v’s pull’ media, I was curious to explore what happens if a typically cool medium were inverted and made hot. How would reversing the intended use of a communication device make people feel? What would happen if a technology medium gained sentience?

com-mun-i-cate was constructed as an artificial ‘forest’ made of technology. Large plastic tubing ‘trees’ grew parasitical telephone handsets underneath a ‘canopy’ of cable wiring. Within the forest, technological ‘fungus’ littered the forest floor and piles of gutted televisions spawned empty cans of worms. In this environment, the phones did not behave the way we expected them to, nor were people able to use them the way they were used to using them.

The audience was invited to participate, but instead of being able to use the phone for personal expression or to communicate our own messages, the phones were pushing a message at us, forcing us to ‘listen’ to the phones’ expression.

Each phone transmitted a low quality, looped sound recording, deliberately designed to sound like transient, whispered messages. The initial impression was one of accidental voyeurism into a crossed-line conversation. The phones continued whispering of their subliminal messages seemed to be an insidious attempt to infiltrate our consciousness and influence our thoughts.

This was a collaborative piece, with electronics and programming by Adam Pierce. All materials sourced from Reverse Garbage, Marrickville.

com-mun-i-cate installed at

• Loveseat: Exotic Erotica, Surry Hills, March 2001
• Summer Dreaming Festival, Peats Ridge, January 2001

Materials

• PVC piping
• Old Telecom handsets
• Network wiring
• PC and ‘switchboard’ control panel
• Communication symbols & devices
• Televisions
• Empty cans of worms

Sound recordings include:

• radio plays
• lectures
• advertising jingles
• random conversations
• experimental soundscapes
• snippets from TV shows
• evangelical speeches