Before Our Eternal Silence | 2013
light installation, lamps, arduino, dimensions variable
Before Our Eternal Silence is an installation which incorporates approximately 100 lamps programed to transmit a silent message using Morse code. Vogel challenges her audience to engage from a visual and auditory perspective by experiencing the installation of blinking lamps and public horn speakers announcing voice recordings of text from current Craigslist Missed Connections postings in the DFW area. Vogel analyzes the nature and evolution of communication, as well as the purpose. Like the use of Morse Code as a silent cry for help, she juxtaposes the blinking lights with sound of the public address which underlies dependence, desperation and ultimately futility, of a collective city's hopes and desires via Internet technology. Through the lenses of contemporary communication technology, Vogel discovers and challenges the failed utopia of the Internet as the "global village", objectivism in the news and the ideology of science.