DASHED HOPES

Visions of the future from the past give us a starting point to examine the dynamic evolution of culture. I created this installation for the 2012 Governors Island Art Fair - it is one iteration of my ongoing project about the history of the videophone.  From E.M. Forster's prophetic story "The Machine Stops," to cartoon favorites the Jetsons, video telephones have been featured for decades in both high and low culture as the ultimate futuristic form of communication. Despite intense development efforts, marketing approaches, and technological advances, it is still not the main form of human interface. This installation featured a documentary-style video, archival photographs, ephemera, statistics, and reading material from the last 100 years that referenced the videophone. It also included a participatory area where visitors could draw or write down their visions of future technology. 

I gave a followup performative lecture based on my ongoing research about the history and current status of the videophone.