White Pointer 1992-1999

White Pointer – You are listening to humans observing fish at the New York aquarium
Electrical cabling, 10 power supplies, ten speakers, 5 minidisk players, five foamcore plaques

An archeology of visitor attitudes to sea and ocean biology at the New York Aquarium. A multi channel audio installation consisting of five audio stations, taxonomic plaques and lighting (in altar form), along a gallery wall.

The audio consists of edited conversations spoken by aquarium visitors as they observe various fish and habitat display tableaux.

Five taxonomic plaques define where the recordings were made i.e. which fish tank. In this work, constituent elements are kept to a minimum; the image is reduced to filtered pointers. The work plays with ideas around museology and the taxonomy of objects through a partial reconstruction of a lived experience.

The aquarium conversations are played back at a low volume. The sound is intended to be heard but remain ambient within the general exhibition space. The content becomes audible when a viewer stands at one of the five altars.

Each altar comprises of a shelf supporting two small speakers and a minidisk player positioned immediately below a taxonomic plaque. The plaques speakers, shelf tops and the surrounding wall are lit with a diffused (softened) spot light.

The work is designed to be reproduced with changed playback technology. Each version is a unique work.

White Pointer – You are listening to humans observing fish at the New York aquarium, (aka: White Pointer) Collection Art Gallery of Western Australia Ed 1/1 ver WA/2000.

Blind Mexican Cave Fish

Sound sample