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Machine Whispers

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Machine Whispers
7-second loop
installation
with commentary by Yu Ling Chou

There is a game called Chinese whispers that we‭, ‬human beings‭, ‬play‭; ‬the‭ ‬first player whispers a phrase or sentence to the next player‭. ‬Each player‭ ‬successively whispers what that player believes he or she heard to the next‭. ‬The last player announces the statement to the entire group‭. ‬Errors typically‭ ‬accumulate in the retellings‭, ‬so the final statement differs significantly from the‭ ‬first‭. ‬I‭-‬Yeh Wu‭ was curious to see if that would happen with machines‭. ‬Will it always‭ ‬accurately repeat the same signal‭?‬

There are no images being displayed on either monitor at the start of this work; the image on one monitor is formed from the reflections caused by lights within the environment. The camera records the reflections, and displays it on the other monitor. This is the first phrase that starts the game of Machine Whispers. It will become an infinite loop until I, a human being, switch off the power to the machines.