PLANET OBSOLESCENCE
An audio-visual experiment in low fi hacking, using electronic waste in an exercise of concealed information.
This installation features over 60 discarded LCD screens, modified so content is visible only through a special headset.
To the naked eye, the screens appear blank and silent; through the headset, visuals and audio emerge.
Cameras within the headsets generate visual feedback loops, while live room sound is sampled into looping audio. Cameras around the room create a surveilled environment.
As a result, viewers become part of the work itself—simultaneously mysterious and comical.
With only two headsets available, the experience is intimate and isolating, immersing each viewer in an echo chamber.
The headsets were deliberately designed as simple cardboard boxes.
This references childhood imagination and embraces a low-fi, DIY approach to augmented reality and tech.
How it works:
Low fi, hands on Hacking: By removing the top polarising filter from each discarded LCD screen, the content becomes invisible to the naked eye, revealing itself only when viewed through a piece of the polarising filter.
Iterations and Developments:
ITERATIONS AND DEVELOPMENTS:
I-Project Space, Beijing, 2015, as an experiment on censorship within the arts community, and issues of E-Waste.
Gig City & Urban Dream Brokerage commissioned development & Exhibition. Dunedin, 2018.
The Performance Arcade, Wellington 2019 – developed with a focus on surveillance and self image.
Ramp Gallery, Hamilton, 2019 – developed site specific video and sound component.
Second Unit’s What you do in the Shadows – Commission for use as ’vampire vision’ in immersive theatre, Circa Theatre, Wellington 2019