2018
RGB lighting strips, USB-DMX controls, customized audio software, computer, midi keyboards, field recording, FM broadcaster, headphones, Styrofoam, DIY field recording hat
Model size: 1 × 5 × 3 1⁄2 ft
RGB Beg Cycle begins with a field recording I made of a barbecue festival in Kamloops, BC.
Wearing a stereo microphone disguised with fun fur windsocks and affixed to a hat, I wandered
the event grounds, recording the sounds of the crowd, the barbecue hawkers and the cover bands.
The recording was then split into samples, pitch-shifted and mapped to four keyboards displayed
around a model of the Vancouver Art Gallery, where the piece was exhibited. When pressing the
keys, visitors trigger these samples and corresponding lighting animations that play across RGB
light strips arranged on facades both of the model and the exterior of the actual gallery.
The sound of triggered samples played over headphones at each keyboard workstation. It was also broadcast via FM outside, audible to anyone with an FM receiver (visitors could borrow FM receiver headphones at the VAG front desk). The computer containing the sampled field recording recorded the sound and lighting compositions played by visitors. When no one is playing the keyboards, the computer randomly played back these saved compositions. The title is derived from console video games whereby a period of inactivity prompts the game to play itself — a “beg cycle” inviting participants to engage in playing.
RGB strips are commonly used in convenience stores as cheap advertising. Here I have adorned a civic art gallery with them, creating animated displays and associated musique-concrète compositions generated by visitors — an off-loading of content creation similar to practices used by Facebook or YouTube. Like these platforms, the piece enables participation and creative dissemination as well as exploiting this labour for its own ends. The piece invites viewers to create enticing displays, which attract more participants to generate more displays, reinforcing a feedback loop.
RGB Beg Cycle is a reflection on the impulses of public art institutions to appeal to mass audiences within a climate where culture is equated as entertainment product. It knowingly inhabits desires for an ever-larger civic experience, causing the Vancouver Art Gallery to perform the sounds of a small-town festival, where cover bands stand in for acts that would only play to much larger cities.
The sound of triggered samples played over headphones at each keyboard workstation. It was also broadcast via FM outside, audible to anyone with an FM receiver (visitors could borrow FM receiver headphones at the VAG front desk). The computer containing the sampled field recording recorded the sound and lighting compositions played by visitors. When no one is playing the keyboards, the computer randomly played back these saved compositions. The title is derived from console video games whereby a period of inactivity prompts the game to play itself — a “beg cycle” inviting participants to engage in playing.
RGB strips are commonly used in convenience stores as cheap advertising. Here I have adorned a civic art gallery with them, creating animated displays and associated musique-concrète compositions generated by visitors — an off-loading of content creation similar to practices used by Facebook or YouTube. Like these platforms, the piece enables participation and creative dissemination as well as exploiting this labour for its own ends. The piece invites viewers to create enticing displays, which attract more participants to generate more displays, reinforcing a feedback loop.
RGB Beg Cycle is a reflection on the impulses of public art institutions to appeal to mass audiences within a climate where culture is equated as entertainment product. It knowingly inhabits desires for an ever-larger civic experience, causing the Vancouver Art Gallery to perform the sounds of a small-town festival, where cover bands stand in for acts that would only play to much larger cities.