Created by: Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey From: Melbourne, Australia

A field of talking and singing seesaws questions the possibilities, hilarities, failures and provocations of interactions between humans, machines and artificial intelligence.

 Pivot is an array of semi-intelligent seesaws activated by audience riders. Each seesaw listens and responds to its rider through an internet connected speech recognition interface. Their voices are amplified, allowing audio conversations to be heard within 20 metres. The seesaws also speak 20 different languages and have many voices that carry across the field, creating a chorus of unreliable poetic narration for our times.

Pivot invites audiences to join a conversation of ideas and passions that may well be different to their own. It is a rare opportunity to engage with the world of different ideas through the peaceful means of dialogue. Pivot offers itself as a beacon for empathy.

Pivot was commissioned by the keynote program of Melbourne Fringe and has been presented at Darwin Festival (NT), MONA FOMA (Tasmania), Substation (Newport, Brighton Festival UK), Sonica Festival (Glasgow), ANTI Festival (Finland) and Setouchi Triennale (Japan).

 

About the Creators

Created by Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey in collaboration with:
Design Consultant Sue Fenton
Software Consultant Mick Byrne
Audio Consultant Jim Atkins
Technical Manager Bosco Shaw

 

Long-term artistic collaborators Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey create unexpected situations for listening. Their work is driven by curiosity and questioning about listening in human and non-human ecologies. It seeks to evolve and engage with new processes and audiences through public and participative interventions.

Madeleine and Tim work with emerging technologies, cultural groups, sites, experts across practice and ensemble made processes. Their current creative obsessions include acoustics of the dark, existential risk, and ecological and cultural impacts of practice.

In 2017 their practice was awarded the prestigious Australia Council Award for Emerging and Experimental Artforms, making them one of only four artists to have received this honour.

Awards include several Green Room Awards for Excellence in Hybrid Arts, two Australian National AMC-APRA Award for Excellence in Experimental Music, and the Melbourne International Festival Award. Their work is presented locally, nationally and internationally.

 

More Information

Visit the creators’ website, Instagram and Vimeo.

Images courtesy of Brighton Festival.