Spectres of spectrum II, 2014
 

Spectres of spectrum II, 2014, Eco Spirit,
Morton House Woodford, NSW, Modern Art Projects (MAP)
Spectres+of+the+Spectrum+II+(transmission)– accompanied videoloop: HD, 4:3, colour, mono, 3:30 min on SONY film production monitor | plastic medical model brains
Curated by Jacqueline Drinkall, Billy Gruner. Artists: Alex Wisser, Ben Denham, Beata Geyer/James Culkin, Bim Morton, Fiona Davies, Georgie Pollard, Gianni Wise, John Douglas, Locust Jones, Paul Greedy/Tom Ellard, Sarah-Jane Norman, Sarah Keighery and Vicky Browne.
Extending on previous work with the brain and it’s the oft-quoted remark in Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum:
“Wanting connections, we found connections always, everywhere, and between everything” (1988). The brains now function as a reminder of a hypervigilance from a distrusting state. The brain/mind is an endless loop of receiving sending data. I ask if the mind can act as a counter to neoliberal global capitalism… an emancipation or does it find itself complicit in its connections? I also present a video viewed in an older monitor formally used in TV production and CCTV. It forms a montage of footage sourced from the mountains, Google imaging and satellite imaging. It resonates with the ambient sound of a large electrical tower.  The plastic brains and electrical wire bubble in the bathtub.  I look to Warren Neidich here. He argues the mind is a complex embodiment of systems of social and counter-intelligence media. The mind being an extension of these others – an embedded system within these systems; hyper-obsessed with updating its presence – finding connections where they may or may be. “…the flickering brain, which relinks or creates loops– this is [the mind] as cinema” (Gilles Guattari)
A hyper-vigilant and effective a form of contemporary paranoid delusional behaviour.
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Read about this project at ARCHITECTURE-AU. Download essay at academia. Reviewed at sixtoeight. View the video component on VIMEO.

Modern Art Projects (MAP) is a social and cultural engagement program designed to explore the nexus of art and architecture via a broad interdisciplinary field. MAP runs a program of event-based contemporary art in unique domestic architecture and grounds. These one-day only, open house projects are made possible by owners generously opening private spaces for public engagements.

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The video
The video forms a montage of footage sourced from the Blue Mountains region, Google and satellite imaging. It treacherously whispered resonates with the ambient sounds emanating from the overhead wires of a nearby electrical tower. It is part documentation and part the mind making conspiratorial connections between data and energy that transmits between these towers. The mind being an extension of these others – an embedded system within these systems; hyper-obsessed with updating its presence – finding connections where they may or may be.

 

Gianni Wise, “Spectres of the Spectrum II”, 2014 (install view), videoloop: HD, 4:3, colour, mono, 3:30 min on SONY film production monitor, plastic medical model brains. Photo courtesy of Modern Art Projects

Gianni Wise, “Spectres of the Spectrum II”, 2014 (install view in situ), plastic medical model brain. Photo courtesy of Modern Art Projects