Greetings BY Clemens Niel
Suspended from the ceiling are numerous identical, autonomous devices controlled by infrared motion sensors. The devices’ function is to open and close greeting cards equipped with sound modules. When an installation visitor stands beneath one of the devices, its card opens and emits sounds, test remarks and greetings produced during the process of manufacturing the sound modules by the factory workers and the plant’s machinery running in the background. Thus, tonal artifacts produced incidentally during the manufacturing process occupy the focal point of this artistic work; they actually should have been erased and were intended neither to be made public nor disseminated. Highlighting the vocalizations and background noise made in conjunction with the production process is meant to make installation visitors cognizant of people estranged from their work, and the great expenditure of labor that goes into these machines.