Echo
Philippe Parreno. Echo. 2019. Mixed media.
Sound design: Nicolas Becker
Music: Arca
Code: Carrie Kengle and Bruno Kruse
Program: Lex and Gwilym Gold (Bronze)
Bruno Kruse: Show Control, Unity, Python, TD, Light and Neon Mapping
Echo is an automaton fed by various inputs and data. The weather around MoMA, the wind direction and trends, when there are more or less people in the lobby, the heat, and so forth—all these things come together and feed the machine that then responds randomly. You could say that Echo is a sentient automaton that responds to its surroundings by receiving data that us humans don’t really perceive, but a machine can. It notices all these changes like atmospheric pressure and that forces the machine to change its behavior.
Echo reacts or bounces back what it feels, but like the name, it is doomed to repeat what it hears without the possibility of articulating anything. It’s a doomed automaton that feels.
Installation view, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. © 2020 The Museum of Modern Art.
