As a participant speaks into an intercom his or her voice is automatically translated into flashes of light and then the unique blinking pattern is stored as a loop in the first light of the array. Each new recording pushes all previous recordings one position down and gradually one can hear the cumulative sound of the 288 previous recordings. The voice that was pushed out of the array can then be heard by itself.

Links: http://www.lozano-hemmer.com/voice_array.php

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer - concept, direction

Rahzel - beatboxing

Gideon May - programming, custom hardware and software

Stephan Schulz, Pierre Fournier, Sébastien Dallaire, Guillaume Tremblay, Tyson Parks - production support

Commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (MX/CA), born 1967. In 1989 he received a BSc in physical chemistry from Concordia University in Montréal. He develops interactive installations that are at the intersection of architecture and performance art. His main interest is in creating platforms for public participation, by perverting technologies such as robotics, computerized surveillance or telematic networks. Inspired by phantasmagoria, carnival and animatronics, his light and shadow works are “antimonuments for alien agency.” His large-scale interactive installations have been commissioned for events such as the Millennium Celebrations in Mexico City (1999), the Cultural Capital of Europe in Rotterdam (2001), the UN World Summit of Cities in Lyon (2003), the opening of the YCAM Center in Japan (2003), the Expansion of the European Union in Dublin (2004), the memorial for the Tlatelolco Student Massacre in Mexico City (2008), the 50th Anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum in New York (2009) and the Winter Olympics in Vancouver (2010).