Secret

Computer-controlled light and sound installation, 2009

24″h x 144″w x 36″d
Polypropylene spheres, LEDs, powered speakers, electronics, computer, custom software.

Secret is a light and sound installation that archives recordings of personal messages and then visualizes these recordings as patterns of light.

For this work, I set up a special phone number that family members could call to leave a message. My two children recorded dozens of messages with the understanding that no one, including myself, would ever hear them. These recordings are interpreted by a software system which renders them as animated patterns of light along with a synchronized soundtrack derived from the original source audio.

The software system is the only agent that ever hears these recordings in their original form and it acts as archivist and curator, entrusted with presenting them through the channels it has available to it.