Hears Presence

We are becoming cyborgs. We carry smartphones and we wear wearables to enhance our human abilities. It’s not difficult to argue that these have become extensions of ourselves figuratively, if not yet literally. Nor is it difficult to argue that today we still adapt ourselves to interact through our technology rather than the other way around.

What if we could adapt the interactions of our technology to a medium we ourselves naturally sense?

Présences Périphériques, an art installation by Evelyne Drouin (DJ Mini) and reelyActive co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Dungen, exhibited at Centre Clark through February 17th, 2018, does just that. Put on a set of headphones and relax to the sounds of our smartphones and wearables advertising their presence to one another and to their surroundings. Observe the installation “breathing” faster as this chatter increases, and brighter — the speakers are retrofitted with Philips Hue lightbulbs — as you approach with your smartphone or wearable.

Hear the Artist Talk, not as human voices, but rather as those of the devices present:

Hear the artists and their devices simultaneously, and observe the installation “breathing”:

Listen. We are becoming cyborgs. Today we humans can announce our machine-presence with a $5 retrofit, and make our entire machine-story available to anyone, anyplace or anything nearby who chooses to listen.

Who chooses to listen hears the future.