Listening Post is a system designed to overhear, parse and ultimately learn from the spoken phrases of casual passersby. A remote listening post, installed in the public sphere, constantly monitors its immediate environment and broadcasts what it hears, via cell phone, to a server, or speaking post installed in a remote space, for example CEPA Gallery in Buffalo, NY.

The server interprets, recombines, and vocalizes the conversation it receives while evolving over the course of the exhibition to reflect what it has learned. Utilizing technology commonly used for public surveillance Listening Post turns these techniques into raw materials for creative play. A community language emerges from the new lexicon and grammatical syntax it creates using the fragments it overhears.

The process of system accumulation and evolution is visually recorded by a constant printout spooling into the gallery space.

Thanks to Thomas Dexter for visual design and fabrication and to CEPA Gallery for the funding to make this project possible.

Update I recently gave a talk at IgniteNYC about this piece as well as Totem.

I also gave a radio interview about these projects as well as other recent work.