So it was just a normal Friday night as we found ourselves back in studio. The final cubes were covered and as it slowly got dark, we rearrange the space in the studio to set up our cubes to make it all more like an installation. As one of the torches had broken, we were limited to 7 cubes which we arranged in a circular form. We realized at this point we should've made the wires with which we extended the LEDs longer as they were only able to reach the next box over, meaning we weren't able to mix them up in a pattern and it wasn't a mystery who was powering each box.
When it was dark and we finally found all the light switches, the studio was completely dark but a test inside one of the boxes showed that where the LED was bright enough to shine through the box, it was only in a direct beam. A quick tip from Zak and we were attacking the LEDs with sandpaper which successfully resulted in the light dispersing and the boxes glowed.
10:30 crept nearer and the studio we had a few participant drift in and they were convinced to participate. It took a bit of trial and error before everyone was able to successfully light their neighbor's box and then it was finally show time. We started simply with sending a pulse of light around the circle which took a few goes as some of the people from outside the group weren't completely familiar with operating the torch and made more difficult by the fact that you couldn't actually see when it lit up. We experimented with a few more patterns and after a while I got my turn in the box.
For the main experiment, we started by all sitting in silence and darkness. Anyone could start a pattern and from there, if you got a pattern, you had to pass it on. This quickly did turn into Chinese whispers and the patterns which came back around were slight modifications of the ones before. By the end it had turned into a series of strobe-like flashes, followed by a constant stream of light.
I'd had a chance at the beginning to watch it and it was so exciting seeing it all come together and work out as we had more or less envisaged. It was an eerie effect seeing these static, inanimate objects light up out of the dark as if by themselves, the effect enhanced when the people inside the boxes were silent. Even when the pattern wasn't perfect, you still got a sense of that communication and the idea of power and light as a driving force of this communication and existence when you were otherwise isolated, in both the aspects of being isolated in the box and in the dark.
Visually the effect was also like looking down on a city at night: the buildings which are in darkness are assumed unoccupied and blend in with the darkness, nearly non existent. Those windows which are lit up, you imagine there is someone behind that window. Though you can't see them, it indicates presence, activity and life. Or if you think about being lost in the dark, we connotate any light as a sign of hope or a guiding light, indicating safety, rescue, a sign of life and potential rescue.
When inside the box, it was a different experience altogether. The box was big enough to sit comfortably cross legged and upright, but you still definitely felt that the walls were around you. When all the lights were off, you were in complete darkness. It was always such a shock when the light came on because it was so bright and you immediately felt more comfortable being able to see, even though it was just the walls around you. What was interesting was that when your light was off, you could faintly see the flashes of light in the other boxes, muted through several layers of newspaper and the distance between them but you could see where different boxes were lighting up. This is connotative of the idea of a guiding light when you yourself are powerless.
The participants from outside our group seemed also to enjoy the experience and the challenge of cooperative immobility. Even though we weren't able to accurately pass the patterns around the circle, the idea of working cooperatively to sustain the circle and collective as a whole was successful overall. At times I was sitting in my box and thought that yes, I did have the power to just stop and not do anything and hence as a result, the pattern would break and everyone would be left without power, waiting for the one before them to send it through. When you are otherwise isolated without means of communication, the actions of individuals can have a huge impact.
Overall, our project explored the concept of the importance of power, communication and the collective in a globalized society; the ability to communicate through the technologies we have developed to bridge a physical geographic divide is crucial but we must also consider the implications of both our consumption and input of power. In whatever context you want to interpret 'power' , whether as electrical or figurative force, we need to understand the implications of it's use and lack of to truly be able to achieve sustainability immobility.
Photographs and footage in this post are courtesy of Ryan Smale.
When it was dark and we finally found all the light switches, the studio was completely dark but a test inside one of the boxes showed that where the LED was bright enough to shine through the box, it was only in a direct beam. A quick tip from Zak and we were attacking the LEDs with sandpaper which successfully resulted in the light dispersing and the boxes glowed.
For the main experiment, we started by all sitting in silence and darkness. Anyone could start a pattern and from there, if you got a pattern, you had to pass it on. This quickly did turn into Chinese whispers and the patterns which came back around were slight modifications of the ones before. By the end it had turned into a series of strobe-like flashes, followed by a constant stream of light.
I'd had a chance at the beginning to watch it and it was so exciting seeing it all come together and work out as we had more or less envisaged. It was an eerie effect seeing these static, inanimate objects light up out of the dark as if by themselves, the effect enhanced when the people inside the boxes were silent. Even when the pattern wasn't perfect, you still got a sense of that communication and the idea of power and light as a driving force of this communication and existence when you were otherwise isolated, in both the aspects of being isolated in the box and in the dark.
Visually the effect was also like looking down on a city at night: the buildings which are in darkness are assumed unoccupied and blend in with the darkness, nearly non existent. Those windows which are lit up, you imagine there is someone behind that window. Though you can't see them, it indicates presence, activity and life. Or if you think about being lost in the dark, we connotate any light as a sign of hope or a guiding light, indicating safety, rescue, a sign of life and potential rescue.
When inside the box, it was a different experience altogether. The box was big enough to sit comfortably cross legged and upright, but you still definitely felt that the walls were around you. When all the lights were off, you were in complete darkness. It was always such a shock when the light came on because it was so bright and you immediately felt more comfortable being able to see, even though it was just the walls around you. What was interesting was that when your light was off, you could faintly see the flashes of light in the other boxes, muted through several layers of newspaper and the distance between them but you could see where different boxes were lighting up. This is connotative of the idea of a guiding light when you yourself are powerless.
The participants from outside our group seemed also to enjoy the experience and the challenge of cooperative immobility. Even though we weren't able to accurately pass the patterns around the circle, the idea of working cooperatively to sustain the circle and collective as a whole was successful overall. At times I was sitting in my box and thought that yes, I did have the power to just stop and not do anything and hence as a result, the pattern would break and everyone would be left without power, waiting for the one before them to send it through. When you are otherwise isolated without means of communication, the actions of individuals can have a huge impact.
Overall, our project explored the concept of the importance of power, communication and the collective in a globalized society; the ability to communicate through the technologies we have developed to bridge a physical geographic divide is crucial but we must also consider the implications of both our consumption and input of power. In whatever context you want to interpret 'power' , whether as electrical or figurative force, we need to understand the implications of it's use and lack of to truly be able to achieve sustainability immobility.
Photographs and footage in this post are courtesy of Ryan Smale.
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