Sending & Receiving
An Interactive Light-Activated Installation for Dark Spaces
Sending & Receiving is an installation project designed for dark spaces maneuvered uniquely by each visitor with a flashlight. The visitor illuminates a web filling the space that is hung with envelopes using their flashlight. In each envelope is a light activated sound module that contains a recording of an individual posting made on the local version of the Craigslist message board Missed Connections. For this reason, every installation of Sending & Receiving is unique and produced using audio recordings of distinct postings made locally. Each of these postings is written by someone seeking to find someone else. Often without any additional identifying information besides what someone was wearing or driving, the attempt is made in these postings to make a connection. Holding a light, visitors to Sending & Receiving reveal a complex web and through activating recordings of individual postings stored on the light activated sound modules in each envelope, the visitor physically receives the sent messages and connects them as they maneuver the installation.
This project is a working meditation on collections silently amassing in online classified websites. It is actualized as an installation that gives the visitor agency to connect the incomplete, ephemeral presence of the Missed Connection Craigslist forum. These postings are online classified listings intended for someone with the expectation that in all likely odds, they will not be received. Each posting is an expression for expressions sake, words offered in honor of phantasmic encounters and feelings never articulated. Together they offer hopeful gestures that are reflective of the collective longing for connection. Following is video showing the concept of a 2018 Santa Fe installation for Currents New Media.