Extra Sensory Wave Device by David W. Halsell

Extra-Sensory Wave Device

Extra Sensory Wave Device by David W. Halsell

Extra Sensory Wave Device by David W. Halsell

Extra Sensory Wave Device by David W. Halsell

Installation, 37′ x 37′. Live closed-circuit video projection, infrasonic microphone, geophones, novelty wave-machine, satellite dish, salt, steel, concrete, 2007.

A vaguely scientific, vaguely spacecraft-looking device sits in a darkened space, surrounded by patterns of crusted salt residue on the floor. A closed-circuit video projection shows the rhythmic sway of a wave machine. As visitors move about the space their presence is detected by both an infrasonic microphone and an array of geophones; these vibrations are then amplified and alter and occasionally disrupt the delicate balance of the instrument, which in turn alters and disrupts the video projection.

Conceptually, the idea that we are products of a dynamic coupling with our surroundings drives this work. The possibility that we may be influenced or affected in subtle, even imperceptible, conditions by our ambient environments would require reassessing the boundaries of internal and external experience. In this piece the viewer is immersed in a (science) fiction with explicit references to a natural environment, mediated and/or interpreted by technology. By transposing stimuli that we are not consciously aware of into the visual experience, these connections are explored through time, place, technology and consciousness.