Meander (10 minutes)

Video and sound installation

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In his novel Player Piano, Kurt Vonnegut writes about a town divided by a river flowing through it: the south side is where the people of the town live, while thousands of automated machines operate in gigantic warehouses on the northeast side. The machines dictate every aspect of people’s lives. There is no chance to dwell on the present, or to look back and reminisce. Everything constantly moves forward in the name of progress.

 

The passage of time is the same as the flow of a river; it moves in only one direction. Disrupting the current is a side-step away from the onward march of time and progress.

 

Later in the book, a Player Piano performs an old song called Alexander’s Ragtime Band. The automated instrument plays a robotic rendition of the song perfectly; without feeling or emotion. The version in my work is badly timed and full of mistakes. I tried my best to recreate the Player Piano’s interpretation of a perfect performance, but I have failed to do so.

 

The tick-tock of a clock is the only mechanical sound in the space. It is ticking at the speed of my resting heart rate at seventy-five beats per minute; a natural metronome marking the passage of time and underpinning the rhythm of the river’s flow and piano melody.