All images courtesy of Jon Snyder
The idea of having people read your IM conversations would probably cause some to panic, but experiencing media artist Ben Rubin and statistician Mark Hansen’s *Listening Post *is far from frightening. The project, currently on view at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, is an immersive display of green luminescent text fragments scrolling across a curtain made of 231 mini LCD screens. Along with hearing the deep, automated voices running through eight surround sound speakers, it almost feels like you’re at the controls of an alien data surveillance center, researching intelligent life on Earth.
Using Linux servers and Pearl software, Hansen developed a data collection apparatus that scans thousands of chat rooms, bulletin boards, and open discussion areas. Once it finds an active one with more than 10 users, it latches on and transmits the text instantaneously. The text is then displayed across the same VFD screens found on a basic cash register.
While* Listening Post *was initially just a sound installation, Rubin and Hansen found that adding a visual element gave the piece more depth and meaning. There's a heightened sense of connectivity, being able to glimpse at events and experiences in real time. When the Columbia space shuttle blew up for instance, Rubin recalls the topic instantly dominating the display. “It was interesting to have Listening Post running when that happened because you saw a lot of firsthand eyewitness accounts of what people had experienced,” he told the Underwire. And of course, after 9/11 had happened, war, terrorism, fear were reflected in the dialogue boxes as well.
Listening Post is on display until November 11, as part of Dark Matters: Artists See the Impossible. The group exhibit features other high-tech installations, video, photography and conceptual projects exploring the unexpected, the invisible and the hidden. More images of Listening Post and other works from Dark Matters after the jump.
When first encountering David Maisel’s photography series Library of Dust, your eyes are instantly tickled by the vibrant colors and hues of the cylinder-shaped subjects. Yet upon closer inspection, you realize they’re actually rusty, corroding metal canisters that were found in the basement of an Oregon psychiatric hospital. Each one, differing in corroded mineral patterns, holds the cremated remains of patients whose bodies were unclaimed by their families.
In Black Monday, Sergio Prego uses multiple cameras to capture a 360-degree view of a rigged explosion. Think the circular filming technique used in Matrix fight scenes but sped up and slowed down for a view that’s both dazzling, yet dizzying.
MURMURS, is a collaborative project between Alex Schweder, Richard Barnes and Charles Mason, documenting the yearly congregation of a flock of starlings over EUR, a suburb of Rome that was to host Mussolini’s Universal Exhibition celebrating fascist Italy. Charles Mason created the sonic accompaniment to the photographs (pictured) that were taken by Richard Barnes.
Alex Schweder's Folded Murmur, a four channel video projection that displays the birds in motion both inside and outside the box.
Trevor Paglen's Code Names displays a lengthy list of classified military programs that were active between 2001 – 2007. Wonder what WIRED was all about… Click here to read about Paglen’s limit-telephotography series.
