Synchronization Station

Allen Riley

Artwork description:

Synchronization Station is a participatory performance about mediated intimacy that uses analog video mixing as a counterpoint to the role of video technologies in everyday life. It operates in a fictional moment in which computers are being invented, or reinvented, for the intentionally humorous purpose of establishing contact between humans.

The show is set in an experimental video research facility established to reconnect people who live close together but who struggle to communicate, providing a hands-on way of thinking and feeling together about the role of video in both nurturing and straining social ties. My intent is to emphasize the power of human connection to make complex or incomprehensible technologies into forms of authentic engagement.

The experience of the show is divided into four stages: onboarding, orientation, participation, and reflection. During onboarding, attendees are greeted by the host and choose to participate by selecting numbered cards that are used to coordinate turn-taking. In orientation, the host demonstrates the workstation in a presentation that also incorporates analog video synthesis works that transform visual artifacts from computer history.

The central device of the participation stage is an oscillator-controlled video mixer that blends images of the hands of participants who take turns coming up to the stage in pairs. Each pair works silently together to interpret the instruction to 'synchronize' by exploring the tactile image, which displayed to the audience and briefly recorded. The show concludes with a reflective and textural audiovisual performance that visually integrates the recordings using video feedback.