Instructograph 2012

Mixed media: altered found object, embedded Foxconn computer, HDMI screen, custom software, rotary encoder, pic board, constructed wooden base

Grant Guy (Adhere and Deny) commissioned this first altered device. It was part of his Circus Object Performances in March 2013. The found video for this piece reveals over a hundred years of the history of the circus. When a viewer cranks a handle, the video changes. When the handle isn’t cranked, the default video plays “The March of the Gladiators” (the classic circus music theme) being performed in over twenty different ways. Instructograph consists of a device that originally was used to learn Morse code. Telegraphy was the first pervasive binary signaling system. It changed the relationship between language and code and anticipated changes associated with digital technologies especially fast communication.