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What would you say, given one free
minute of anonymous public speech? One Free Minute is a
mobile sculpture designed to allow for instances of anonymous public
speech.
The principal intent of One
Free Minute is to investigate how communication in public space
has been, and can be, altered by technology. Whereas cellular phone
technology has increasingly created mobile private spaces in the public
realm, metering human interaction in billed by the minute increments, One
Free Minute seeks to return the public soundscape to the voices of
its callers.
One Free Minute can be performed in both
live and site-specific versions.
Live Version:
Calls made to the sculpture's cellular phone are amplified
live through a two-hundred watt speaker system. Callers get a maximum
of one minute of anonymous speech time, which is broadcast from the
horn over a radius of about up to two hundred feet. Calls to the piece
are electornically timed by the internal controller, but are not
otherwise censored. Callers revceive the live number in advance by
email, or on the street through a simple printed business card. In the
absence of live calls, the sculture's internal controller randomly
plays back speeches from the internal MP3 speech archive.
Site-Specific Version:
Recognizing that transformative speech is strongest when it references
the community it exists within, One Free Minute can also be
used to amplify the voice of a particular community. To do this, a
call-in number is publicized within the community, and calls are
collected over a month or two prior to the performance time. Additional
calls are solicited during performances through a printed business card
containing call-in information. These collected calls are then played
back during the performance randomly by the sculpture's internal
controller. Examples of this instantiation include San Jose Voices (San Jose), Une Minute Gratuite (Quebec)
and Berliner Stimmen
(Berlin).
On
Anonymity:
Calls to One Free Minute are held in the
strictest anonymous confidence. In an era when governments and public
agencies are increasingly vigilant of who is saying what and where, One
Free Minute puts a bit of a blur on the 'who' and 'where', meaning
that, for example, ordinary citizens and activists alike can speak
openly and without fear of recrimination.
Performance History:
• One Free Minute:
Unscheduled performaces with live callers in Columbus, Ohio, May-August
2005
• Une Minute Gratuite: Collected calls
(primarily in French) from the community of Saint Roch, Quebec City.
Calls performed at closing time in front of the main library, La
Bibliotheque Gabrielle-Roy, June 10-17 2006. See www.uneminutegratuite.net
• One Free Minute: Performances at the World Urban
Festival, Vancouver BC, June 21-26th 2006.
• San Jose Voices: calls collected
from the 408 area code are played in public spaces throughout the ISEA
2006/ ZeroOne festival, San Jose California: August 7-13th, 2006. See www.sanjosevoices.net
• Berliner-Stimmen:
Collected calls (primarily in German) from a Berlin toll-free number
are played in public spaces throughout the Mitte and Wedding distrcits
of Berlin. Part of the exhibition Urban Interface, April
14-May 3, 2007. See www.berliner-stimmen.net (Berliner Stimmmen was
produced with the kind assistance of Katrin Elmer.)
• One Free Minute/ Une Minute Gratuite: performances during the La Biennale de Montréal 2009.
One Free Minute: Reviews and Articles
• Wired News: Artist Cranks up No-name
Rants, by Rachel Metz. link
• Rhizome Net Art News: Have You Got
Something to Say? by Helen Varley-Jamieson. link
• Net Art Review: Speakers Corner
Revisited, or Sound and Free Speech in the City by Ana Boa-Ventura.
link
• ABC Perth, Australia: Got a Minute? Transcript of
radio interview with Glenn Mitchell. link
• Polit.ru Moscow:
news article on One Free Minute
... link
• Art Center Nabi, Seoul Korea: News on
New Media Art. link
• Popular Mechanics South Africa: Speak
your Mind by Bruce Stewart.
One Free Minute: Mentions
in the Blogosphere
• Textually.org: link
• Digg.com: link
• Turbulence.org: networked Performance blog: link
• WFMU's Beware of the Blog: link
• if:book : link
• Frostyland: link
• Yahoo: civil Rights>Censorship category link
• Streettech.com: link
• RealIdRebellion: link
• GM's Corner: link
• Hainsworth.com: link
• Botinok Blog (Russian): link
• Post show (Chinese): link
• Gonzolog (Spanish): link
• PopPolitics.com: They Really Want Your Voice
• DigiArt (Korean): link
• Blogs Get Slaughtered: link
• PixelBox: link
• WMMNA on Berliner Stimmen and Urban Interface. link
One Free Minute: Online Exhibitions and
Curatorial Selections
• One Free Minute as included in the ZKM's Fair Assembly online exhibition
• Memefest International Festival of Radical Communication: first place
in 'Beyond' Category.
• Laberintos.org's New Geographies project. |
