Ekhō
Exhibited at Blindside, 2022
Ekhō explores the social theory and sonic phenomenon of the echo. The work is presented as a dialogue between a holographic mountain and a chorus of smart speakers who repeat concatenated phrases to each other such as 'and, and, and, and,' and 'as well as well as well as well as well'.
In Ancient Greek mythology, Ekhō was a mountain nymph who was cursed with only an echo for a voice, and who provides the origin story for our concept of the echo in Western culture. From this point through to current critiques of machine learning, the echo has been described as a condition of voicelessness, unfulfilled desire, loss and entrapment.
By placing two echoing entities in dialogue, this exhibition proposes that the echo is also link, repetition, an orienting device: a tense dance between subjects in a generative process of tuning.
You can read the exhibition's catalogue essay by Joel Stern, here.
