Set Top Box

Digital artwork based on the emotional content of soap operas for the 2010 Shanghai Biennale.

A small television sits out front, playing TV. Projected onto the wall directly behind is a live transformation of the television signal. In this installation, we used a feed from the SOAP channel, a non-stop source of American daytime soap operas and frighteningly loud commercials.

The transcript of the broadcast is turned into a three dimensional topography of colors, oscillating forms, and linguistic computations. The software watches TV, combing the transcript for emotional and thematic content. The TV soundtrack is transformed into a multi-layer composition, alternating from lifeless robotic speech to cavernous melodic drones. The effect is a floating typographic life form - fed by, performed by, and eternally making sense of, the television.

Set Top Box was debuted at the 2010 Shanghai Bienalle and was also included in Graphic Design: Now in Production, a seminal travelling exhibition that has been shown at the Walker Art Center, Hammer Museum, and Cooper Hewitt. The show ran from 2011 to 2014.