1000 Crickets, Do Not Open was a two channel live video feed installation in which wireless security cameras, monitors, mechanical insects and 1000 live crickets were placed inside two clear vitrines for viewing. A viewer at one end saw what the security camera was trained on just around the corner, and vice versa. The contrasts here, between real physical space, and a representation thereof, highlight a tension between nearness and distance, biological life and technology, freedom and confinement. Our idea is to create a sense of ambiguity, or slippage, between virtual and real space here. When we look down at the screen and see the image of a bug both in the video feed as well as on top (literally) of the screen’s surface, we’re reminded of the thinning barriers between types of space in our modern technological culture. Alternatively, when we see the artificial backdrop of a manicured palatial garden presented in close combination with live plants, or realize ourselves in a box not so dissimilar from the one holding the crickets (being viewed themselves by other viewers), it forces us to question what kinds of new spaces are opening up with the advent of technology.
[slidepress gallery=’1000-crickets-do-not-open’]