402 Disconnect/Reconnect 2009
Multi-media interactive installation
Bemis Center for Contemporary Art--Omaha, Nebraska

This entire installation relates to Omaha’s dubious distinction as the telemarketing capital of the United States.  I have created these separate but related elements within the installation to relate the local history, community and telecommunications with each other in an interactive way.  The entire installation was constructed over a three week period at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art.

Quote of the Day Call Center
During the installation I created this calling center which also relates to historic images of the Omaha stockyard cattle pens.  I  juxtapose the shape of a cattle pen with the shape of a traditional office cubicle.  During the entire run of the installation community groups volunteered time to call residential listings directly out of the whte pages.  Instead of selling something to the receiver of the call, they asked to share with the person the “quote of the day”.  For every day of the installation I had selected a quote of the day.  Each quote is from famous and not so famous individuals expressing inspirational thoughts that relate to community and/or communication.  So this aspect of the installation was a living, breathing call center space throughout the installation.  

Phone Cattle Pens
This particular piece of the large installation relates directly to Omaha known as the telemarketing capital of the United States.  During the installation I created this calling center which also relates to historic images of the Omaha stockyard cattle pens.  I  juxtapose the shape of a cattle pen with the shape of a traditional office cubicle.  This also relates to the company “Omaha Steaks” which is nationally known for its telemarketing sales of steaks across the country.  The phones are eventually slaughtered and make it onto a conveyor line in which they are packaged in Omaha Steak cardboard containers.

Phonebook Memorial Wall
This particular piece of the large installation relates to the nearly obsolete document of the residential white pages which is be replaced by internet technology.  The entire 2008 Omaha white pages is on display here from page one in the upper left hand corner to the last page in the lower right hand corner.  In a sense this wall is a living memorial of the entire Omaha community listing each name with equal importance from A to Z.  It is truly the first “facebook” in which people can relate and connect to each other.

Phonebook Earth Wall
This particular piece of the large installation relates to the nearly obsolete document of the residential white pages.  These recycled phonebooks have been organically stacked open face to create the impression of earth strata cut away to reveal a rock-like layering.  This metaphorically leads the viewer to the room around the corner that appears to be an underground bunker.

The Red Room
This red room or situation room is around the corner from the organically stack recycled phone books.  The floor is tiled with a specific phonebook in which the cover is adorned with the image of rocket that was placed out in front of the Strategic Air command Museum.  Omaha is where the Strategic Air Command Control is for the entire U.S. government weapons arsenal.  It was constructed at Offut Base at the start of the cold war.  This brought groups of telecommuincations experts to the Midwest to make the command center a reality.  The telecommunications expertise evolved Omaha rapidly in the telecommunications industry.  This room is to be my interpretation of the Presidents situation room in an underground bunker that would exist at the Offut Airforce Base.  The space is filled out with a bureau that has dozens of plaster cast phone receivers and overhead is a mushroom cloud like structure fashioned out of state maps in a Japanese lantern type construction method. 

Snake Horn
This particular piece of the large installation relates the old alpine history of using a long wooden horn to communicate with communities across the mountain and also to call cattle home.  I work to integrate this with Omaha’s history as having the largest cattle stockyards at one time in the 1900’s.  It also relates to community and communication. 

Many Voices Bugle Cluster
The part of the overall installation is a series of constructed bugle forms that are clustered together to form one large structure.  Depending on what bugle out of the cluster you choose the sound you make through it can be slightly different given the shape of the bugle.  From other end of the large openings you can actually here the other people and sounds of the gallery filter into the cone much like listen into a large conch shell.  The many bugles--there shapes and sizes represent the many voices of a community.

Phone book Telephone Booth
This phone booth is constructed entirely out of recycled phone books.  The actual phone booth is hardwired with a working telephone.  As the artist I was the only one who had the number to call into this actual phone from the outside.  Throughout the exhibition I would call into the gallery with the hope that a visitor would pick up the phone.  I would take this as an opportunity to simply have a brief conversation with the viewer about who they are and what is going on.  This part of the installation relates to my own anxiety I often experience in cold calling people I don't know. It also relates to our time before cell phones when we were always tied down to making calls from a hardwired land line.