Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s installation tells of a not-too-distant future in which everyday objects and surfaces can be used to watch over the population. The necessary technologies already exist. As a group of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered some years ago, video recordings or laser technology can be deployed to measure the vibrations of objects generated by the human voice. These can then be converted into new sounds. In Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s supermarket installation, for example, potato chip bags, KitKat wrappers, handkerchiefs, water glasses, and even flower petals can be heard as they listen, each contributing their own unique sound. It is within the anti-utopia of surveillance that the objects develop their own, non-human subjectivity, as the artist demonstrates with this frightening scenario.

Link

https://www.paranoia-tv.com/en/program/content/233-a-convention-of-tiny-movements-eurospar-sackstrasse-a-convention-of-tiny-movements-spar-central-train-station