flicker'n hum
Upon entering the Luminato Box the viewer is confronted with an empty space, with the exception of a suspended florescent light and a wheeled metal dumpster. The two objects are familiar enough, both being a simple component of the regular operations of the urban tower. Where these objects diverge from the familiar is in their attempt to communicate, each in their own way. It’s not as though the dumpster is found to talk or mounts a screen of rolling text. Rather, in the quite of the space, a faint rumbling can be heard. The sound is audible but could easily be missed in the glaze and rush of urban life. Short, short, long. Long. Long, short, long. Short, short - a pattern of Morse Code more familiar in the buildings of York a century ago then in the instant messaging of today’s culture.
The florescent light suspend (or possibly mounted to the wall) seems to respond, blinking back a patterned flash of light. The two appear to be in dialogue with one another; quite possibly discussing the economic downturn or something equally as common on the lips of people today. This is not what is discussed. In fact there is no discussion at all. What is found are two simultaneous monologues, each is expressing their own plight of banality and the inability to communicate with anything around it. The irony in this being that the dumpster cannot see the light, nor can the light hear the dumpster. Together the contrasting monologues run for a duration of five minutes before pausing for thirty seconds, then begin again. Transcripts of the humorous and slightly pitiful monologues were posted onto the wall, the text being laid out in relation to the cadence of the work.
