The Swap Shop
“Rapidly our technology is creating a new kind of human being, one who is plugged into machines instead of relationships, one who lives in a virtual reality rather than a family.”
(Potter, J. 2011 quoting Pipher. Pg. 253)
What Pipher speaks of here is our societies rapid progression through the digital age. Developments in hand-held communication and entertainment mean that we are never far from the media’s grasp. Indeed as Buckingham notes “The contemporary world is […] increasingly saturated by media of various kinds; and the media themselves have become more diverse, more complex and more ‘interactive’.” (2003, pg.159) The Swap Shop explores what happens to the media and mediums we leave behind and what implications this has on us as consumers.This concept of media saturation is one of four key areas that this project seeks to examine alongside ephemerality, technology fatigue and groundings in tactical media.
Closely linked to media saturation are debates surrounding the ephemeralness of media and digital art, as outlined by Marchese and Marchese. They suggest that digitalisation is increasing the short-lived nature of digital media and leading to intangible work that has been planned rather than crafted. (cited 1995) The Swap Shop seeks to test this theory by addressing what defines ephemerality, whether an event can transcend the ephemeral to become persistent through digitalisation, and, whether a persistent object can in turn be seen as ephemeral.
Technology fatigue is also explored within this project, stemming from Tsoroni’s recent article on the subject, in which she states that people “get so familiar using digital technologies in their everyday life that the prospect of interacting with them in the gallery ceases to be novel, interesting or appealing.” (2009) This project embraces a low tech and mechanically interactive approach, inviting the participants to touch real media objects as opposed to digital representations of them and explores this notion of technology fatigue by presenting an option to interact with piece digitally, rather than that being its primary focus.
Grounded in the roots of tactical media, The Swap Shop takes its inspiration from the 1997 installation “True Crime” by the Critical Art Ensemble. The CAE define tactical media as being “situational, ephemeral, and self-terminating.” (see CAE website) At its core it seeks to tell society something about itself or its politics. This project aims to do the same but at a less intrusive, more simplified level, seeking to provoke reflexive questions within the audience rather than political change.
As an interactive installation, participants are invited to bring with them any unwanted piece of media and swap it for one of many that lay ’dumped’ within the room. Alternatively they can just browse the items and enjoy forgotten technologies and medium at their leisure. Through original art work adorning the walls the mis-en-scene will reflect a landfill site, instilling questions about societal waste and environmental concern; the aesthetic of which is reminiscent of the animated film “Wall-E”; (Stanton, 2008) much criticised in America for the environmental and political ethos demonstrated in its narrative.
Finally the participant will have the option of leaving video feedback through a webcam triggered by pressure sensors; the only piece of working technology in the room. This tests Tsoroni’s notions of technology fatigue but more importantly demonstrates, as Donath (cited 2004 pg.650) outlines, that something ephemeral, an installation in this case, can be made persistent and its permeance altered if it is recorded. Therefore testing Marchese and Marchese’s notion that digitalisation produces intangible art. (1995)
