Collective Simulated Synaethesia
(2004-2007)
Project website:
http://www.pan-o-matic.com/css
Collective Simulated Synaesthesia, a “divine data mining”, uses the alternative process of divining (or dowsing) as a way to collect personal, biometric information. The performance reflects on the nature of one’s privacy and the way personal information is currently data mined and tracked through new technologies such as cell phones, RFID tags and GPS. In the performance, participant’s frequencies are divined to determine distance, then converted to a musical note using a simple physics equation. The frequency as note is sent back to the participant via a professional opera singer. The premise is that the procedure will create a sensory overload in the participant thus inducing a synaesthetic experience. Participants are instructed on how to sing their own “tune” at the end of the procedure.