Ideation

I thought that there was three main ways that a person can be given a 'voice': textual, visual, audio.

I seperated my initial ideas into these three categories, and used this as a jumping off point. Essentially the type of communication sparked the method of transmission.

I sketched these out. Unfortunately blogger has rotated the photo.


1. the 'bands': textual

anyone can take a special wristbands from a central part of the space (a podium). you can then go and sit wherever you desire. A red laser follows you (tracked and originating at the podium which informs viewers who is involved). You can then send messages by texting the number on the band (or by having a keyboard directly on the band) which will then be sent to the podium and projected along you laser path (onto the floor and then onto you OR onto a wall).

2. 'word waterfall'

inspired by the existing water feature

a. you write words on little pieces of paper (face up) and place them on small discs of ice at one end of the water feature. the ice eventually melts, sending the words along their way across the feature.

b. you type word into a keyboard at one end of the feature. then, the words from a previous person are 'released' and are projected along the feature as if caught in the current.

3. 'audiotone'
inspired by automatic poetry (discovered in my research into rafael lozano).

a. you type random words or sentence fragments into a PC
this is made sense of by an automatic poetry generator
a poem version is read out by a screen reader AND/OR projected onto the walls

b. you type a message into a PC
the words are made sense of by an automatic poetry generator
it is fed into a screen reader THEN put into an auto-tuner which inserts tonal differences and turns it into a song
it is then played out loud

Rafael Lonzano-Hemmer

http://www.lozano-hemmer.com/projects.php

Rafael Lonzano-Hemmer was born in Mexico City in 1967 and is an electronic artist who develops interactive installations, primarily focusing on platforms for public participation. He mixes architecture and performance art by subverting technologies such as robotics, computerized surveillance or telematic networks.He create sculptures, responsive environments, video installations and photographs.

His Works

Amodal Suspension

Location: Museum Exhibition

Messages are typed into a screen, which are converted into a kind of binary code which is flashed by a giant searchlight into the sky. This can be decoded with a phone or another electronic device, but once it is 'caught' or 'decoded', it disappears from the sky and is projected onto the side of the museum.

Excerpt:

'This work was inspired by the Tanabata tradition in Japan whereby short messages are ritually hung on bamboo. One objective of the piece was to make a public spectacle by using the private medium of text messaging, slowing down communication and introducing the possibility of interception.

The piece was active between the 1st and the 24th of November 2003'

http://www.lozano-hemmer.com/amodal_suspension.php

Voz Alta

http://www.lozano-hemmer.com/voz_alta.php

Dedicated to all those involved in the student Tlatelolco massacre of 1968. A megaphone connected to a light beam was provided, and all participants could speak freely. The light beam turned on and off, and flashed according to the sound input.

Excerpt:

'"Voz Alta" (Loud Voice) is a memorial commissioned for the 40th anniversary of the student massacre in Tlatelolco, which took place on October 2nd 1968. In the piece, participants speak freely into a megaphone placed on the "Plaza de las Tres Culturas", right where the massacre took place. As the megaphone amplifies the voice, a 10kW searchlight automatically "beams" the voice as a sequence of flashes: if the voice is silent the light is off and as it gets louder so does the light's brightness. As the searchlight beam hits the top of the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, now Centro Cultural Tlatelolco, it is relayed by three additional searchlights, one pointed to the north, one to the southeast towards Zócalo Square and one to the southwest towards the Monument to the Revolution. Depending on the weather, the searchlights could be seen from a 15Km radius, quietly transmitting the voice of the participants over Mexico City. Anyone around the city could tune into 96.1FM Radio UNAM to listen in live to what the lights were saying.

When no one was participanting the light on the Plaza was off but the three lights on the building played back archival recordings of survivors, interviews with intellectuals and politicians, music from 1968 and radio art pieces commissioned by Radio UNAM. In this way the memory of the event was mixed with live participation.

Thousands of people participated in this project, without censorship or moderation. Participation included statements from survivors, street poetry, shout-outs, ad hoc art performaces, marriage proposals, calls for protest and more.'

Frequency and Volume

Frequency and Volume enables participants to tune into and listen to different radio frequencies by using their own bodies. A computerised tracking system detects participants' shadows, which are projected on a wall of the exhibition space. The shadows scan the radio waves with their presence and position, while their size controls the volume of the signal. The piece can tune into any frequency between 150 kHz and 1.5 GHz, including air traffic control, FM, AM, short wave, cellular, CB, satellite, wireless telecommunication systems and radio navigation. Up to 48 frequencies can be tuned simultaneously and the resulting sound environment forms a composition controlled by people's movements. This piece visualizes the radioelectric spectrum and turns the human body into an antenna. All the receiver equipment used and antennae are exhibited in an adjacent room.

The project was developed at a time when the Mexican Government was very active in shutting down informal or "pirate" radio stations in indigenous communities in the states of Chiapas and Guerrero.

Less Than Three

"Less than Three" is an interactive installation of light strips that form a network between two intercoms. As a participant speaks into an intercom, his or her voice is translated into corresponding flashes of light and this light pattern is transmitted visually along one of the several possible pathways through the network. When it reaches the other side, the viewer's phrase is once again released as sound. Several voices can be carried simultaneously and the short contributions travel fast through the network and the longer ones take longer. The piece stores up to 600,000 recordings and can optionally play them back at random after a period of inactivity

There are two versions of the project: a large version that uses white light emitting diode (LED) strips that can be installed indoor or outdoor and a small version using red electro-luminiscent (EL) wires.

Microphones

Subsculpture 10

"Microphones" is an interactive installation featuring one or several 1939-vintage Shure microphones, placed on mic stands around the exhibition room at different heights. Each microphone has been modified so that inside its head is a tiny loudspeaker and a circuit board connected to a network of hidden control computers. When a public member speaks into a microphone, it records his or her voice and immediately plays back the voice of a previous participant, as an echo from the past.


My favourite pieces are the 'microphones' piece and the 'less than three' piece. I like 'microphones' because of the ability to tap into the last message by recording a new one, and the temporary nature of the recording: you cant go back once youve written over it. It is very personal as only a few people would be able to hear it at a time, and i like the idea of leaving a piece behind.

In terms of fitting the brief, it is not necessairly a public voice in the sense of a mass audience, but it is giving the person a voice. I think it encourages interaction as the only way to find out what the previous message is to record your own.

In Search Of a Public Voice: On Site

The brief is to design a means for people, wither as individuals or collectively, to express themselves in a public space, to find a public voice. To do this we will create a platform - tangible or ethereal, physical or virtual, temporary or permanent from which messages and other forms of communication can be relayed.

Our 'site' is New Street Square, London, EC4 which is a Land Securities development close to fetter lane.

We went there to explore the space, understand its current usage and view any current interventions.


A 'living wall' with greenery growing underneath a wire mesh. The greenery does look almost 'trapped' beneath the wire frame despite it being intended to be a subversion of the space. The wire is necessary for it to be stable and grow, but it kind of suggests that the wildlife is overwhelmed and crippled by city life which may have not been its intention.


It is a very imposing and for me almost intimidating. It is a very functional and corporate space. I did observe that perhaps it would feel different in the summer as it would be warm enough for people to take their time and enjoy being outside.


A water feature. I have seen a similar one around waterloo somewhere, but this was slightly different. It would be interesting if it was covered with very slim panes of glass here and there so that you could eat on parts of it, whilst there still being sections where it was uncovered. Problem with this would be the mess which could clog it and make it look dirty. Perhaps instead you could use it to put drinks on.

Maybe you could have ice sculpure glasses with water inside that you could actually use, which you could then leave on the water and it would melt.




A neon light intervention already in the space.

What i am going to do next is look at existing artists to see what they are doing, and to get some inspiration.