Dialogical Drawing
1994
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Dialogical Drawing was created at the dawn of the Web, when the network only supported text and low-resolution images. As such, Dialogical Drawing was created not to reflect but to change the network, in anticipation of a future when global multimedia communication would be ubiquitous. Dialogical Drawing asks: What is the condition of the art object in the age of networking?
The piece addresses this question by presenting two identical objects simultaneously at two distinct exhibition venues at two geographically remote locations. The objects are connected through a live, open audio link.
At first, viewers contemplate the piece in the same manner that they normally look at wall-mounted works of art. Viewers stand at a comfortable distance and see a composition of lines, circles, and rectangles created with circuit boards, wires, a microphone, and a speaker embedded in a vertical mahogany piece.
Because viewers don't see antennae or external wires, they first think that the piece is a discrete art object, like a painting or sculpture. Soon, however, the viewer notices that sounds are in fact coming from the speaker. The viewer moves closer to the piece and listens more closely. Surprised, the viewer realizes that the sounds are human voices coming live from another location. Ceasing to contemplate the object, the viewer now engages the other viewer co-present in a remote location. Both viewers start an improvised dialogue, which constitutes, in essence, the "drawing" alluded to in the title of the piece.