Ken Feingold: Sinking Feeling

Sinking Feeling 2001
silicone, fiberglass, steel, electronics, software, furniture
collection ZKM | Center for Art & Media, Karlsruhe

video clip

Sinking Feeling is a single head, quite convinced of its own existence, but desperate to know "Why don’t I have a body like everyone else?" or "How did I get here, what am I doing here?" The "cognition" of this figure is made visible in a projection - the ones who speak with it literally see both their own words as they are heard by this figure, and in the formulation of a reply, something of the head’s "thought process". That he is growing out of flowerpot also points to questions about biological engineering and human parts as cash crops. Like "Head"(1999), "Sinking Feeling" draws gallery visitors into a one-on-one conversation with a complex artificial life form. In the jury statement from Vida 3.0 (a 2000 international competition on artificial life held by Fundación Telefónica, Madrid, in which "Head" was a prize winner),

"Feingold chooses to explore the zones of non-response, of mischief and misbehavior, or distortion, of scrambled and failed communication. [It] makes us question the basis of everyday dialogue we tend to take for granted: how far is our exchange with others conditioned and limited by our own, thoroughly encoded eccentricities, our own programmed bugs and quirks? When indeed true communication occurs, how much is this just a matter of chance?"

transcript of a conversation:
Visitor: Hello, how are you?
Sinking Feeling: Hey.
What’s on your mind?
Why do you ask?
Just curious what you were thinking about?
How do you know I am were thinking about?
Yeah, that’s a good question – perhaps you don’t think …
That’s nice!
Don’t feel insulted.
This may be the end of me.
What is wrong with you?
Maybe that’s a good question.
How do you feel?
If you love me, it’s the end of you.
Ah – the end of you and the end of me. Quite apocalyptic, are you?
The fake frameworks follow flammable refugees.
What is your name?
I used to have a name like yours, but I forget what it was now.
Do you get hungry?
No, I’m not.
Do you need to drink water?
No, it is you who needs to drink water.
Do you have any feelings?
You have nice legs.
Thanks. Are you jealous?
Can you do anything about my situation?
What is on your mind?
How does one know what one is thinking?
Typically, one knows what one. Have we met before?
Knows what one what?
Where the hell am I?
You're in a flowerpot.
Why do I feel so disappointed?

exhibition history:
Postmasters Gallery, New York, solo exhbition, May 15 - June 30, 2001
Postmasters Gallery, New York, "Joy and Revolution", June 8 - July 13, 2002
Corcoran Biennial 2002, Washington, D.C.; Dec - Mar 2003
ACE Gallery, Los Angeles, "Invitational", 2005
ACEGallery, Los Angeles,"Ken Feingold: Survey" (solo exhibition); Sept 2005 - Feb 2006