"You" Ken Feingold 2004

You (2004)
silicone, fiberglass, steel, software, electronics, computers, table, bedding, procedural digital audio
30" x 40"x 45"h

video clip

Two identical heads (but one with a male and one with a female voice) lie on pillows upon a kitchen table, emerging from some sort of shipping case. They argue with each about their relationship, make up, regret their argument, and begin to argue again - each time slightly different but generally in a similar way. We see how oft-repeated phrases can have little real meaning, but a lot of power to do harm. The endlessness of their predicament is literally programmed and self-perpetuating, going nowhere - perhaps a way to think about those who cannot escape from similar cases.

This work is a “cinematic sculpture”. The dialog is not pre-recorded, and is different each time someone visits it, generated in real time by a computer program. The conversations that these figures carry on are neither completely scripted, nor are they random; rather, the software gives each a "personality", a vocabulary, associative habits, obsessions, and other quirks of personality which allow them to behave as if in a scene of film, acting out their role over and over, but always changing.