Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 21, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
A novel electronic art installation at the Science Museum in London gives visitors an insight into conversations taking place on the internet. As the British newspaper ‘The Independent’ reports, the facility named ‘Listening Post’ first searches the web for text content posted in thousands of chat rooms, message boards and online forums around the world. Randomly selected words are then displayed in samples on a total of 231 small electronic screens and simultaneously read aloud by a computer-generated synthetic voice. With the experimental installation, the two artists Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen aim to offer interested visitors a cross-section of communication conducted on the internet.
‘This installation opens a window for people onto today’s online communication,’ explains Hannah Redler, responsible for art projects at London’s Science Museum. In this way, visitors are shown the extent, form and subjects of people’s conversations on the internet. ‘The work illustrates how many different thoughts people express on the internet,’ Redler states. The content reproduced as part of the art installation is to be regarded as representative of all communication taking place on the internet.
Visitors to ‘Listening Post’ initially encounter a rather confusing picture: individual words flicker on screens and disappear again, while a computer voice simultaneously reads them aloud. Although the text samples are reproduced at random, the soundscape can be divided into seven different sections. During one phase, for example, only sentence phrases beginning with ‘I am’ are reproduced. Others, in turn, filter only online texts beginning with ‘I love’ or ‘I like’ out of internet communication. The individual phases alternate over periods ranging from 30 seconds to three minutes, with the length of their playback varying each time.
The installation deliberately applies no censorship whatsoever to the online contributions it finds. The Science Museum therefore advises interested younger people to arrange parental support before a visit. As a precaution for any emergencies, however, an agreement has been made with the artists providing for modification of the filter system in the event of particularly extreme verbal outbursts, such as racist statements.
Further information:
- Information about the exhibition
