Text Messages From Months Ago is a fragmented conversation between my partner and I. In this work archived messages that were composed for text are transformed when they are vocalized. Because these messages were shared using our smartphones, our personal messages are not necessarily private, but data collected by corporations. Performing these messages allows for these private moments to be animated publicly.
Calling in to different phones, which are connected to two radio transmitters operating at the same frequency (88.1 FM), we read our privately sent messages from 6 months prior.
Two dancers respond to each other's movements. One holds a radio, and the other holds a weak transmitter. When they draw near, only the weak transmission—my voice—can be heard. When they seperate, only the strong transmission—my partner’s voice—is heard. As the dancers move, they stitch together a series of fragmented conversations determined by their closeness.
Reminiscent of Apple commercials from the 2000's the dancers have been reduced to silhouettes. Though, instead of holding the newest technologies they yield radios while the video quality has been reduced by re-recording the footage until it appears pixelated.
I created four phone calls with restricted and specific access. Corded phones are used as a means of simplifying communication to an act of hearing and speaking. Embracing the creepy nature of media, this work explores notions of intimacy, surveillance, and location.
3.3879° N, 118.4163° W
Corded phone with aux is connected to a smartphone which plays an ocean live stream. A phone call to the ocean. A simulacra for a conch shell. The sound is of Catalina Island, off the coast of California, as it happens in real time.
Robo Call
Corded phone with aux is connected to a recording of a robocall. Here I perform the character of a representative for disembodied vocal tourism. This message circulated briefly as a robocall.
Call Waiting
A corded phone with an AUX connector is plugged into a radio. Call Waiting is work in which I perform a customer service representative in a never ending call holding line.
Mental Radio
Corded phone connected to a phone call connected to a bluetooth speaker allowed voices from the exhibition to be amplified in the hallway out of range of the speaker. This created a power dynamic with the speaker and their unknown audience.
Flute Loops is a piece that was done in collaboration with Beth Hansen in 2018 for my music project Glitter Vomit. Beth called me from Albuquerque while my phone was connected to my micro radio transmitter in Philadelphia. I looped and manipulated the radio broadcast. There is a transformation over distance and also three different way this work existed that happens in this work; from the flute in New Mexico, to the one might hear on the radio in Philadelphia, and than to the recorded sound presented here.
Significant Locations
The iPhone automatically stores a record of places that you frequent, as well as the amount of time that you spent there it is called Significant Locations. In Significant Locations Philadelphia 2019 I perform the voice of Siri narrating an audio tour of my significant locations in Philadelphia. In this work you never arrive at any location and you are constantly directed to the next.