The great thing about the Leckey exhibition is that it keeps throwing up ideas. I’d become interested in the Long Tail idea – 80% of internet users access the same 20% of content but the remaining 80% of content snakes its way through all out lives in various ways. For my last but one gallery intervention I’d asked people to wrote down what they used phones, television, computers, the internet, books, paper, a pen and the letter A for and also how the felt about these things. I was hoping to find some kind of 80/20 revelation about the way in which we communicate and receive information. I didn’t. But I did get into some very interesting conversations about the exhibition with some of the visitors!
For my final afternoon of gallery interventions I knew that I wanted to do something that would somehow pull all four sessions together and enable me to write something, so I decided to ask visitors to take part in a word association. I started off with the words Leckey uses to categorise the exhibits ANIMAL BODY MACHINE and then, a bit like Chinese Whispers, the next visitor would write a word association to the word the previous person left. No-one saw the whole list and pretty soon it became impossible to tell which category was which. What I was after was trying to recreate the way in which Leckey’s online searches led from object to object by using people’s associative responses instead of the internet.
So this is what it looked like
and this is what I wrote, italicised words are taken straight from the lists:
ANIMAL BODY MACHINE – My head is a desktop
It rained that day.
White pavilion domes on grey skies.
Hunched people, scarves lying parallel to the plain of the horizon in the rain shiny wind.
Inside is quiet.
Except for…
The sound of the dumb things,
The placing of feet,
The murmur of voices.
Sometimes a solo shriek then sshhhh………
A machine’s heartbeat
Still.
Click to click to click, click, click.
Pursued, followed, found.
One thing led to another thing.
Snaking round, gathering in
to here.
“I don’t understand it to be honest”
“I think it’s wonderful”
ANIMAL BODY MACHINE
Desktop folders. My head is a desktop, sort of. So must yours be. Follow the links and Animal goes to Outfit, Body goes to Wealth and Machine goes to People.
Imagine that!
You, me, them, they
Dumb wonder
The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things
Conform: strict, careful placing
Treasure chocolate angels fake high-life stripes
Treacle parachute flags yellow beach
Car gears ROAR
Sound
Fingers
Tart gems
Tasty fruit nails
Dog meat corpse
Bodies mouth hate noise
Furry vision
ANIMAL BODY MACHINE
Lion Mouth Robot
Roar Speech Movement
Lion Dumb Ballet
Cat Mindless Strength
Furry Choke Wonder
Pipe Careful Amazing
Cleaner Placing Gears
Liquid Table Machine
Fairy Tangible Fruit
Liquidity Segment Compote
Sea Arc Vegetable
Beach Rainbow Carrot
Swimming Colours Jasper
Costume Yellow Person
Outfit Banana People
ANIMAL BODY MACHINE
Giraffe Clock Legs
Spot Sand Nails
Conform Beach Hate
Obey Sea Love
Strict Fish You
School Chips Me
Children Fish You
Sweets Fear Them
Calories Parachute They
Dietary Bungee Happen
Fat Elastic Find
Treacle Plastic Treasure
Tart Fake Pirate
Cake Gems Skull
Tasty Wealth Floral
ANIMAL BODY MACHINE
Dog Fingers Car
Meat Chocolate Trip
Bread Mousse Vision
Bodies Chocolate Express
Corpse Brownies Paper
Life Sister Tiger
Death Family Stripes
Angels Children Flags
High Noise Travel
Life Sound Car
Death Vision Exhaust
Time Inspire Fumes
Short Help Cars
And on a sweeter note:
You inspire
Copyright Christine Harmar-Brown October 2013
With thanks to the De La Warr Pavilion gallery visitors to the Mark Leckey exhibition The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things on Saturday October 19 2013