Arron Gibson: The Listening Line
Artist's Statement
I, Arron Gibson, am, at best, scattered. I always have been and likely always will be.
This is not a point of pride or humiliation, merely the way it is.
I create 'to do' lists. Those lists have sub-lists. The sub-lists have sub-sub-lists and are colour coded.
Depsite my best efforts, few tasks ever realize their full potential, but some things, perhaps only those which truly matter, do.
Arron Gibson: an organized mess. Much like the hundreds of bodies of water that grace this continent, some stay their course, never intersecting or shaking hands with another while others seemingly wildly metastasize, sprawling and reaching out for other regions but inevitably ending up in one central hub. I am proud to say that “The Listening Line” is the hub of my four years at Ryerson University.
'The Listening Line' is a labour of both love and fear. A love of humankind, nature, technology, commerce and everything in between and an equal fear of humankind, nature, technology, commerce and everything in between.
The very tools the Earth or some higher power has so graciously afforded us are now at the forefront. These tools can now become our undoing or our salvation, the choice is ours.
'The Listening Line', in its original exhibition state, was created with its main objective being physical contact- for the user to immerse themselves (or at least their hands) in water. The user would approach the fountain, complete with continually flowing fresh water, place the headphones on their head which brought them audio tracks about nature, technology, the juxtaposition of things, etc., written by myself and other contributors and after listening a while, upon touching the water before them, hear the audio tracks change and draw a correlation between this and their hand having just made contact with the water. They are empowered, yet confused about the “how” and “why”.
The exhibition of ‘The Listening Line’ before you today is a proud and bittersweet experience for me. I am without a doubt honoured to be the recipient of the 2006 Emerging Artist Award, but within the massive “world wide web” as we call it, there is somehow simply no room for direct human contact. My original objective becomes lost in a sea of alternative ideas- having the mouse be your contact vehicle within the online exhibition, etc., but the mouse is a middleman and a manmade piece of glorified plastic, not at all similar to ones own hand. The beauty of a hand immersing itself in water and of the facial expressions on the users when they realize that touching the water has taken them into a new audio track and can take them back to the old one should they choose to touch it again is lost.
I bring you a video, which demonstrates and mimics the exhibition version of ‘The Listening Line’, which requires direct physical contact with water. This is in the touch section. Furthermore, in the listen section, I have included the audio content, which comprises the stories of ‘The Listening Line’. audio is in stereo with the left audio track intended for underwater or immersive listening, while the right audio track remains above the surface. The stories play simultaneously and you can attempt to simulate a navigation of them by fading in between channels I ask that if you are interested in a personal at-home installation of ‘The Listening Line’, that you visit the water section of this site and request one. Nothing would bring me more joy than to share this immersive experience with further users- to deliver ‘The Listening Line’ in its intended manner.
Finally, I am a web designer, mostly. I develop code and optimize usability everyday. There are some cases where I cannot bring a client’s thoughts to the web, usually due to the current limitations imposed by the internet. These reasons, whatever they may be, keep me up at night. I toss and turn and eat, sleep and breathe rows of numbers and characters and still cannot turn these ideas into something image-based which someone can view online. These situations, although rare, confuse me. This one is no different.
