Can You Hear Me? I Can See You!

What was that about olds dogs and new tricks? Stephanie Kehoe finds an exhibition at FACT turning the old saying on its head… 

Technology is an increasingly pervasive aspect of our world; an ever growing and ever changing presence in society and at FACT, collaborative multi-media artist group Re-dock, have engaged with, and placed front and centre, older generations of the population, eschewing ideas that it is the young who are the most natural early adopters.

The exhibition in FACT’s Connects space features interactive pieces investigating the theme of technological changes in communication, including a projection of YouTube clips, from an assortment of films and television programmes from the twentieth century which feature ideas of possible future technology.

Star Trek (considered particularly influential in the intersection between science and fiction) and Only Fools and Horses sit alongside clips from 1940s films, which are looped to show how people in the past – spuriously or otherwise – have guessed at what may be commonplace in the future. Unfortunately, we’re still waiting on those widely available commuter trips to Mars.

Forming the meat and message of the exhibition is a range of workshops given to a group of 55+ year old participants on how to use a range of technology they have not previously accessed. These workshops were filmed to record the experiences of the people involved, with this range of interviews and documentation placed on four iPads inbuilt into the central table, with headphones attached. This is accompanied by simplistic diagrams of how computer applications such as Skype are able to work.

The central piece in the curated space consists of a wooden table which has been engraved, cut and altered to showcase a number of iPads, television screens, LED lights and etchings. The contrast of the natural, bare wood against the man-made, synthetic iPads is an interesting juxtaposition, perhaps a subtle hint, on how our present society relies on the man-made technological advances rather than using natural materials as a resource.

The Portal, a piece designed by the artist collective, allows the public to record a Skype message, via a huge red button, to their future or past selves. These recorded messages are then sent across to the central table and processed, using pepper’s ghosting effect, to create a distorted, holographic result, reminiscent of the now clichéd holograms in twentieth century films which prophesized that this would be the form of communication in the new millennia.

More primitive technology with a contemporary twist is shown in the exhibition, too; a bee-hive-looking contraption is mounted onto the wall which sends voice recordings, through a laser beam, to an opposing bee-hive across the room. This creates a tin-can like device which visitors can speak through to each other. This piece combines the old idea of using tin-cans to communicate but with added use of laser beams. Given ’80s visions around lasers, you’d think this would seem strange and out-dated here, but when considered alongside the wooden bee-hives that surround them, they become a futuristic vision once again.

The mechanics of this section are displayed on top of the wooden table within plastic cases. The aim of this, and the engravings, is to show the process of how these programmes are able to work in simple terms for visitors (including ourselves) who may not necessarily understand contemporary technological terms.

However, the un-missable piece which dominates, in size, is a large mural containing stop-motion pictures of the participants in the workshop holding iPads which read, across 24 panels, a message which they would send back to themselves twenty years ago. Seventeen individual stories are shown on the wall including messages such as: “Don’t marry him,” “Don’t look back,” and “Follow my dreams.”

A great sense of self-reflection and change is prominent in many of the pieces, which is perhaps a reminder for younger generations to embrace the opportunities and changes that occur – no regrets.

The contrast of the old and new is a recurring theme throughout the exhibition; older generations with new technology, new methods of communication combined with old ideas, new technology side by side with older, more primitive, examples. It is a warning for our contemporary society that even though we believe the technology available to be the best, in fifty years time, our technology will be seen as primitive, hopelessly surpassed.

In one of the documented workshops, a participant explains: “I wish I was here in 50 years, some amazing things are going to happen.” Time will tell.

Stephanie Kehoe

Can you hear me? I can see you! Continues at FACT until Sunday 2nd June