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Generative installation
400 x 160 x 180 centimètres

Connected to sensors that expand the threshold of human perception, a telegraph reacts to variations drawn from its immediate environment. This process involves training artificial intelligence to analyze imperceptible phenomena—the evolution of electromagnetic waves present in space—in order to detect meaning: words, phrases, etc. 

Facing the device, the spectator is first invited to listen to the sound produced by the strange machine, which transposes into audible frequencies the flow studied by the neural network: a kind of fluctuating white noise, the modulations of which sometimes sound like speech formants. When occurrences are detected by the voice recognition program, the telegraph is activated to transmit messages from the invisible—whether they are understandable or not. All the activity of the machine is registered in a logbook that traces the history of the information decoded by the neural network. 

Using a touch sensor system that enables the audio signal to be filtered in order to isolate dominant frequencies, the visitor can interact with the installation and contribute to the search for a possible other world—a way of paying attention to what normally eludes us. 

If we seem to be prisoners of the illusion of a lone world, this installation tries to reveal the imaginary of other possible worlds, parallel or underneath this one, by relying on the technological promises of the future in order to propose a new reading of the present.

Sound design and interactivity: Alexandre Burton (Studio Artificiel, Montreal)
Computer programming in deep learning: Léo Dubus
Sensors & antenna production + telegraph mechanization: FabLab Les Usines
Blueprints: Sophie Laroche
Coordination of scenography: FabLab Les Usines
Steelwork: Struckenfer

A project supported by the Contrat de filière arts plastiques et visuels en Nouvelle-Aquitaine. With the support of the CCSTI—Réseau néo-aquitain de la culture scientifique.