Kieron Dennis, ‘Question, Answer, Question’ – a telephone installation

TELEPHONE +44 (0) 2075039044

Kieron Dennis, ‘Question, Answer, Question’

22 November – 21 December 2008

In 1934, the writer, H. G Wells, is said to have complained about telephones being an invasion of privacy. Rather than have news forced upon us as and when, Wells proposed a one-way telephone that would deliver information upon demand. According to historian, John Brooks, Wells was responding to what literary theorist, Avital Ronell, describes as the ‘disconnecting force’ of the telephone: a force that simultaneously disturbs and attracts us to such machines. Brooks suggests that Wells picked-up on that ‘projective trait of the telephone, which is the launching of speech – and speech alone – in the direction of the other in constant demand for immediate readiness.’ It is a demand that is answered by a question, which is at the same time an answer: ‘Yes?’ or ‘Hello?’ As such, answering a telephone becomes a declaration of readiness to receive and engage.

Kieron Dennis’s new work for Telephone, ‘Question, Answer, Question’, reports an incident. The information flows in one direction only, towards the listener: this is an encounter rather than a dialogue. The ‘demand for immediate readiness’ here is one of listening instead of speech.

The information in Dennis’s work seems pressing and urgent, but also somehow distant and disconnected from any specific context. And as much as knowledge is imparted, ignorance is admitted. A series of subtle inversions punctuate the work: subjects speak of one thing whilst, unwittingly, betraying another. Objects and images conjured by work, and that the listener might take to mean one thing, might well have come to mean something quite different.

Telephone is a project that uses a telephone number to present artworks (sound works). Telephone is an exhibition space, like a gallery, but one that offers space as time-duration rather than as physical dimensions. Telephone operates via a standard digital answering machine set to ‘answer only’. Telephone can be called by anyone, from anywhere, at any time (with calls being charged at a standard land-line rate). It makes use of a single telephone line, which means that each individual caller has sole access to the work at any one time: Telephone is not a broadcast.

Telephone +44 (0) 2075039044

Telephone is a project by Claire Davies and Sam Gathercole

email: information.telephone [at] gmail.com

Graduate Studies at the MIT Media Lab

Interested in Creative, Cutting-Edge, Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies?

If you are thinking about going to graduate school, passionate about helping people, and interested in shaping the future of technology, consider applying to the MIT Media Lab. The Media Lab has one of the best graduate programs in the US, one that offers unique opportunities to do creative, cutting-edge, and radically interdisciplinary research. It is one of the few places in the world where leading scientists, designers, and scholars — in fields as diverse as robotics, art, neuroscience, and education — work together to revolutionize how humans experience, and can be aided by, technology.

Students come to the Media Lab through the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, and all students receive full financial support (tuition, medical insurance, and a stipend). Each year, the program accepts approximately 35 new graduate students. Student backgrounds range from computer science to psychology, music to graphic design, architecture to mechanical engineering, to name a few.

Each graduate student works in one of the Media Lab’s 27 research groups under the guidance of a primary research advisor (see http://admissions.media.mit.edu/admissions/research). When you apply, you should specify up to 3 possible advisors whose research interests resonate with your own. To find out more about a particular research group, check out the group’s website.

For more information, see http://www.media.mit.edu/admissions. If you have questions, or would like to arrange a visit to the Media Lab, please send a message to admissions09 [at] media.mit.edu. Also feel free to email me with questions or if you are specifically interested in applying to my group.

Best,
Leah Buechley
Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences (starting January 2009)
Director, High-Low Tech Group
MIT Media Lab
http://www.media.mit.edu/~leah