Listening Post (artwork) explained
Listening Post is an artwork that visualizes Internet chatroom conversations.[1] The work was created between 2002 and 2005 as a collaboration between the artist Ben Rubin and the statistician Mark Hansen.[2] [3]
Listening Post uses custom computer programs to automatically collect thousands of chatroom and bulletin board conversations. The conversations are then parsed by the software into smaller phrases that are displayed on a hanging grid of 231 vacuum fluorescent text displays.[4] [5] The displays are hung in a grid format 12 feet high and 21 feet wide,[6] suspended in 11 rows and 21 columns.[7] A text-to speech synthesizer voices some of the phrases as part of the accompanying soundtrack.[8] Writer Adam Gopnik described its soundtrack as "intoning words and sentences one by one in a sepulchral BBC announcer's voice or chanting and singing them in fugue-like overlay".[9] Listening Post has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art,[10] the San Jose Museum of Art,[11] the Brooklyn Academy of Music[12] [13] and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.[14]
The work is included in the collections of the San Jose Museum of Art[14] and the Science Museum Group collection in the United Kingdom.[15] [16]
Notes and References
- Book: Digital Art and Meaning: Reading Kinetic Poetry, Text Machines, Mapping Art, and Interactive Installations. 9780816667376. Simanowski. Roberto. 2011.
- Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin. Peter. Eleey. Frieze . 6 May 2003 . 75. frieze.com. 2019-10-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20191009150812/https://frieze.com/article/mark-hansen-and-ben-rubin. 2019-10-09. live.
- Web site: Exhibitions + Collection. December 21, 2009. San José Museum of Art. October 9, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191009150822/https://sjmusart.org/exhibition/listening-post. October 9, 2019. live.
- Book: Talk to Me: Design and the Communication Between People and Objects. 9780870707964. Antonelli. Paola. 2011.
- Web site: Ben Rubin. July 5, 2006. October 9, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191009150810/https://ww2.kqed.org/spark/ben-rubin/. October 9, 2019. live.
- Book: Public Art: Theory, Practice and Populism. 9781444360615. Knight. Cher Krause. 2011-09-23.
- Book: Voicetracks: Attuning to Voice in Media and the Arts. 9780262339841. Neumark. Norie. 2017-05-12.
- Book: The Indiscrete Image: Infinitude and Creation of the Human. 9780226093178. Carlson. Thomas A.. 2009-05-15.
- Book: Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York. 9780307369277. Gopnik. Adam. 2010-06-18.
- Web site: Whitney's 'Listening Post' a Fly on Chat-Room Walls. NPR.org. 2019-10-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20191009150823/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1172615. 2019-10-09. live.
- Web site: The Arts in San Jose, CA | 'The Listening Post' at the San Jose Museum of Art's 'Edge Conditions Part I' . 2019-10-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191009151258/http://www.metroactive.com/metro/06.07.06/listening-post-0623.html . 2019-10-09 . live .
- News: ART IN REVIEW; Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin -- 'Listening Post'. The New York Times. 2003-02-21. Smith. Roberta. 2019-10-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20190722220326/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/21/arts/art-in-review-mark-hansen-and-ben-rubin-listening-post.html. 2019-07-22. live.
- Book: Virtualpolitik: An Electronic History of Government Media-making in a Time of War, Scandal, Disaster, Miscommunication, and Mistakes. 9780262123044. Losh. Elizabeth Mathews. 2009.
- Web site: 'Listening Post' brings the Internet into view. Kenneth. Baker. August 4, 2007. SFGate. October 9, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191009150816/https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Listening-Post-brings-the-Internet-into-view-2549303.php. October 9, 2019. live.
- Web site: Listening Post | Science Museum Group Collection. 2019-10-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20191009150812/https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8091687/listening-post-artwork-art-installation. 2019-10-09. live.
- Web site: National Art-Collections Fund Review. 2007.