Murmur Study #1

Murmur Study is a work-in-progress that examines the rise of micro-messaging technologies such as Twitter and Facebook Status Updates. One might describe these messages as a kind of digital small talk. But unlike water-cooler conversations, these fleeting thoughts are accumulated, archived and indexed digitally by corporations. While the future of these archives are still to be seen, the sheer volume of publicly accessible personal expression should give us pause.

These first studies presented at the 2009 Spark Festival and the Experimental and Media Arts Exhibition consider the absurdity of the physical archive by printing live Twitter message from the Minneapolis Metro area during the exhibition. Twenty thermal receipt printers continuously produce and endless waterfall of text, which accumulates in tangled piles at the bottom.

Murmur study is an ongoing collaboration with Márton András Juhász and the Kitchen Budapest.

Murmur Study is a commission of Northern Lights’ Art(ists) On the Verge program with the generous support of the Jerome Foundation. Additional support provided by the McKnight Foundation, the Weisman Art Museum, and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.