Input / Output show: The Gallery Phone

The work of this year’s MA Interactive Art & Design students focuses on the mutual relationship between audience, artwork and artist, and aims to encourage your unique contribution and experience of the work.

Using the simple concept of input/output as a starting point, each piece of work in this exhibition maps a particular type of interactivity. When we understand the nature of inputs and outputs – be they social or technological – we can begin to focus on the varied complexities of human life.

Interview with MA Broadcast Journalism students

Review of the Gallery Phone

The Gallery Phones true possibilities became clear when the piece was interacted with; I had primarily been concerned with the controlling elements of the gallery space, the instructional voices that interrupt our daily lives, and the CCTV that is all around us. My initial idea was to create a booth that resembled a CCTV station, where the viewer would be given the rare opportunity to take control as an anonymous voyeur and have the chance to speak directly to the gallery.

This felt too similar to power imbalances that already exists in these spaces, so I decided to open it up and use a telephone as the device to ‘speak’ to the gallery; by using an everyday and accessible form of communication, the focus became more on opening dialogue in the space.
During the exhibition, this is exactly what it was used for, participants first approached it carefully, reading the instructions on the wall, pressing buttons, and finding some of the responses amusing. However, when they realised how it could be used, they returned to experiment; shouting their own instructions through the mouthpiece of the phone to friends across the room and making playful announcements to the gallery.

The technical process of this project was time consuming, and relied on a lot of support, as most of it was new to me, this was a risk I’m pleased I took, as my knowledge of the programs Pure Data and Cubase will be invaluable for future projects.
The sound, however, could not be heard clearly at the exhibition opening, as the levels could not compete with three other works using sound and the voices of the audience in the space. During the one-day show, it would have intrigued much more interaction if the phone were to ring and invite the viewer in.

I was pleased with my choice of space; I thought it worked well combined with the exhibition information on the entrance wall. For my next piece of work I plan to spend much more time on sound checking and experimenting with enclosing my audio to reduce the possibility of it being affected by other sounds.

The one day show 18.01.07

The Gallery Phone in use

Fellow Artists

The Opening Event

Gallery Opening 17.01.07

Completed set up

Exhibition set up

The Gallery Phone's audio

Gallery Phone's audio; this plays out through the telephone's ear-piece; a female speech-bot reads a list of options; which are the purpose of each button.

Artist Statement

The Gallery Phone is a working informational point; it holds details about the exhibition in audio format, including; opening times; directions to the bar; and the bus timetable, and is used in a similar way to a telephone.

The Gallery Phone is identical to the telephones already existing around the space; it is installed on the external wall at the entrance to the gallery, and is strategically placed next to the informational text about the exhibition and underneath an existing CCTV monitor; to give the impression of being part of the working space.

To access the information inside the phone, the viewer can either listen to the automated voice through the handset or read the written instructions next to the phone; both list the informational options and purpose of each button.

Once the handset is lifted from the phone the automated voice starts playing through the earpiece and a monitor directly above the phone turns on and shows the live view from a web camera installed in the gallery space.

When buttons 1 to 9 are pressed the female automated voice is projected into the gallery space through external speakers positioned next to the web camera.

The aim of the piece is to challenge the way we interact with certain spaces; and by combining everyday objects; such as telephones and web cameras, and everyday situations; such as public instructional announcements, that hold associations with communication and control, it will playfully open a physical dialogue between the audience and the gallery space.

Design Centre CCTV

Design Centre CCTV: This monitor is positioned in the entrance to the Design Centre, it also happens to be above the external wall to the gallery space; this is the wall the Gallery Phone installation is positioned on.

Gallery Phone: Installation

This is the telephone being used in the installation. It is identical to other telephones in the Design Centre; the building the gallery space is within.
I took the handset of the telephone apart and installed a mini-speaker in the ear-piece and a mini-microphone in the mouth-piece. Once the handset is lifted off the reciever an automated voice plays through the ear-piece; listing the options of the buttons on the telephone:
Press 1: To speak to the gallery
Press 2: For opening times of the exhibition
Press 3: For more information about the Input/Output exhibition
Press 4: To make a complaint
Press 5: For free merchandising
Press 6: For directions to the bar
Press 7: For the bus timetable
Press 8: To contact the technition of this phone
Press 9: To make an external call

Detail: Inside the Telephone

This is a more detailed photograph of the inside of the telephone being used in the installation.

Inside the Telephone

I took the telephone apart and connected the existing circuit board to a keyboard circuit board; so that buttons 1-9 on the phone linked to certain keys on the keyboards circuit board. This keyboard then plugs in to my laptop through the usb port. Using a program called Pure Data, I found a Multiple Sampler Patch, this means that each button is recognised as a 'bang' input; for example, pressing button 1 on the phone connects to letter j on the keyboard, which is translated into a number in pd. I can program exactly what I want the 'bang's' outcome to be, in this case they are all pre-recorded audio: which are then programed to be played through external speakers.

Button 1

Button 1: "I'm sorry, there is no one available to take your call please leave a message after the beep."

Button 2

Button 2: "The exhibition is open on Thursay 18th only, from 10am to 4pm."

Button 3

Button 3: "For more information please visit www.ioshow.co.uk."

Button 4

Button 4: "I'm sorry, this input is not recognised, please try again later."

Button 5

Button 5: "Please collect cards and flyers and rip the posters off the notice boards."

Button 6

Button 6: "For refreshments; please find the bar to the right of the courtyard and down the steps."

Button 7

Button 7: "To travel to Penryn and Falmouth; take the 88, the 68, the 7, or the 41 bus, leaving approximately every 15 minutes."

Button 8

Button 8: "Can Rebecca Gamble please report to the gallery telephone immediately."

Button 9

Button 9: "This is not a valid input, i repeat, this is not a valid input."

Input/Output Poster

Input/Output Poster: Designed by Alejandro Garcia
Exhibiting Artists: Nigel Ayers, Rebecca Gamble, Alejandro Garcia, Lee Higgs, Philippa Jones, Nicholas Mann, Tom Readings.

Press Release

Input/Output is a one-day exhibition showcasing exciting new work from the Interactive Art and design MA course at University College Falmouth.

The work of this year’s MA Interactive Art & Design students focuses on the mutual relationship between audience, artwork and artist, and aims to encourage your unique contribution and experience of the work.

Using the simple concept of input/output as a starting point, each piece of work in this exhibition maps a particular type of interactivity. When we understand the nature of inputs and outputs – be they social or technological – we can begin to focus on the varied complexities of human life.

Free Admission
Thursday 18th January 2007
10am – 4pm

Venue: Design Centre, Tremough Campus, Treliever Road, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9EZ, 01326 370400
No Parking; Regular buses from Falmouth, Penryn and Truro

Input/Output Logo

Input/Output Logo: Designed by Alejandro Garcia

Input/Output Flyer

Input/Output Flyer: Designed by Alejandro Garcia

Design Centre Telephone

Design Centre Telephone: On far side of Gallery space

Specific Space

Specific Space for installation: Entrance to Gallery Space: External Wall: Under CCTV

Design Centre

Design Centre: Gallery space

Gallery Space

Gallery Space: Design Centre: Tremough Campus, Penryn

Public Speaker

Public Speaker: Announcements at Truro Train Station

Speaker

Speaker: In film installation in the Tate Liverpool Gallery

Public Telephone

Private conversation

Private Conversation: Public Telephone

Public Telephone

Hello?

Ringing Telephone

Experimental short films and photographs of the public telephone and the private conversation.

Public Telephone

Public Telephone: Moor: Falmouth

Public Telephone

Public Telephone: Moor: Falmouth

Asda Entrance

Asda Entrance: Falmouth
Considering entrances and what's in these spaces; from the useful; telephones and toilets, to the controlled; cameras and public speakers.

Marks and Spencers Entrance

Marks and Spencers Entrance: Falmouth

Falmouth CCTV

Falmouth Highstreet: CCTV
Researching the extent of Falmouth's CCTV, from indoor spaces to outdoor 'public spaces'?

Argos Entrance

Argos Entrance: Falmouth

CCTV poster

CCTV poster: Tremough Campus

London CCTV

London: Tube Station CCTV

Andrea Zittel

Andrea Zittel: A-Z Compartment Units: Nov 2001 - Jan 2002
"Inhabiting a derelict warehouse in Birmingham for five weeks, Andrea Zittel created a 'show room' by filling the space with A-Z Compartment Units. These quasi-architectural modules could be stacked next to, and on top of each other in different configurations, and the artist customised them to meet her day-to-day needs. After her departure, the whole installation, bearing traces of recent occupancy, was open to the public."

Radioqualia 2002

Radioqualia: Free Radio Linux 2002
"To celebrate 'open source' radioqualia launched Free Radio Linux, an audio distruption of Linux; a popular open source operating system. radioqualia programmed a 'speech.bot' to recite all 4,141,432 lines of the source code of the kernel, or core, of the linux operating system. The voice was broadcast over the internet in real time, and relayed to a network FM, AM and short wave radio stations around the world."

Dialtones: A telesymphony 2001

Golan Levin with Scott Gibons, Gregory Shakar and Yasmin Sohrawdy: Dialtones: A telesymphony 2001.
This was a musical performance played on the audience's mobile phones, whose rings in public spaces are otherwise considered noice pollution.

Blink: 1963

George Brecht, Alison Knowles and Robert Watts; Blink, 1963.
These artists printed an informational graphic design onto bathing suits, pillow cases, match books, and shirts, meaning it could be slept on, worn and struck: An instructional and functional piece to be integrated into the everyday.

Rirkrit Tiravanija

Rirkrit Tiravanija: Untitled 2002
Tiravanija has an anthropological approach to art and life; he challenges the role of the gallery space and the audience, and creates mostly functional, interactive spaces within the gallery, which directly involve the audience; such as creating spaces to eat, drink, read and sleep.

Elmgreen and Dragset

MichaelElmgreen and Ingar Dragset: End Station 2005
Elmgreen and Dragset explore the relationship between art, architecture and design, often by transforming conventions of the 'white cube' gallery space.