Listen – An Interactive Story Telling Project

Listen

This project is based on conversations between myself and Po Wen Shih regarding how we create, maintain and nurture friendship in the time of pandemic. In discussions, we spoke at length of the time spent inside and removed from the rhythm and mobility of our previous lives as well as the ongoing climate of anxiety and self-imposed isolation. In this current moment, we both felt drawn to introspection and re-evaluation of values, material objects, and behaviors. In particular, we found a heightened desire to shift our behaviors by adapting different tools to connect to family and friends.

Our geographically distanced and increasingly physically disconnected space, exacerbated by pressure to produce and conduct our lives at high levels, has led us to use text messages as a primary means of communication. However, text messages are not conducive expressing what we feel about each other. The project is rooted in this context framing the subject through the idea of bringing text messages to life through the senses of seeing, hearing, and speaking. This project is a means to explore experiential messages.

 

Topic: Creating Maintaining, and Nurturing Communication

Attribute: Interactive

Device: Empathetic

Mood: Transitioning from embracing/warm to clean and open/spacious

 

Mind maps

 

  

 

Storyboard

      

 

 

   

 

 

This is an inclusive space without entry fee.

Before joining the exhibition, you will be invited to upload to a sever two messages- one in spoken and one in written form. The message prompt is: communicate something you have not yet been able to say to an individual. This will create a tailored experience for you. Before joining the exhibition, you will be provided with a wearable RFID pin so you will be able to interact with the whole exhibition. 

Motivation:

Our geographically distanced and increasingly physically disconnected space, exacerbated by pressure to produce and conduct our lives at high levels, has dislocated (and sometimes truncated) interpersonal relationships.

Although technology affords us the ability to connect virtually, this mediated space is often filled with distractions and thus not always conducive to being fully present.

In discussions, Po Wen and I spoke at length of the time spent inside and removed from the rhythm and mobility of our previous lives as well as the ongoing climate of anxiety and self-imposed isolation. In this current moment, we both felt drawn to introspection and re-evaluation of values, material objects, and behaviors. Through this, we came to design this piece.

 

This project aims to do two main things:

1. Create a space for contemplation and communication

 

As the viewer enters the piece, they are guided through a liminal space with scrim walls interspersed to slow down the pace of movement. The lighting is muted, using glowing pinks to create a warm environment. The messages provided by the visitors are inputs to algorithmically choreograph shifts in the light. A three-channel sound installation plays tracks of the verbal messages visitors have provided.

 

The second room opens to a square space full of hanging scrims with dimmed blue light, the visitors’ messages are projected on the scrim in a glowing filter and moves slowly and rhythmically. The messages are temporal, mimicking the act of texting on a device, but repeat.

 

The third space opens into a vast circular area, a sky park is welcoming you. Here the visitor can choose to experience or participate in many ways: There are several listening pods spread to invite you to rest in it and a tree in the center with grouped seating. Your messages are mixed with others’ messages and played randomly and softly in the pods and from speakers in the tree, whispering. In other pods, you are invited to record further messages. Or, you can roam and explore.

 

 

“Why not just the park?” you may ask. The two previous spaces highlight a transition from the noise of our lives into a sensual and introspective place and frame the park experience as (out of the ordinary).

 

A living archive

Facilitating new conversation and the recording of those conversations is intended to be an open, ongoing exchange and living archive of our moment as we live in and start to emerge from the various isolated existences we are living in. Retaining the individual in our individual histories and finding meaning in everyday, small gestures (such as simply speaking with your neighbor) are underestimated in the dynamics of power and the narrative of history.

 

Implementation:

1. 1. Computer and recording devices for visitors to upload/record messages. Data mixing and streaming device for text ad sound.
   2. Room 1: 7 meters wide and 10 meters long with a ceiling height of 3 meters. Three pieces of scrim form hanging walls 3x3meters, lighting system with digital receivers to change lighting. Three speakers in ceiling.
   3. Room 2: 15 meters wide and 15 meters long. 8 scrim walls, 3×10 meters. 48 mini projectors. Lighting with blue filters.
   4. Room 3: round interior 100 feet in diameter, substrate of dirt, then seeded grass, one tree (indigenous), 12 pods equipped with speakers and recording devices. 20 mini speakers and wire to hang from tree. 24 individual seats (natural rattan or wood). 20 meter diameter skylight.

 

Work Process

Po Wen and I had a very balanced working process. We spent a couple hours together brainstorming about various topics, finally landing on a very general theme of “relationships” and “friendship” and related behaviors.  This conversation resulted in our mind maps. After reviewing that material, we realized that we wanted to focus on the act of conversation itself.

 

We then did more brainstorming on our own, resulting in subsequent materials (writing and more mind maps) and then met again to discuss. What began to emerge was a process of each doing the various assignments separately, posting them in a google slide, commenting on the posts, revising, and then meeting again. This way of working had a fluid and productive rhythm, created a balanced division of labor and authorship, and felt very natural.

Additionally, our conversations had a direct relationship with our piece as, at various stages, we shared personal details and spoke at length about our experience during lock-down in China. This was equally unexpected and rewarding.