June 2022
City Machine- a concept by the French modernist architect LeCorbusier, describes a city designed for speed and efficiency. Every movement is directed into a well-oiled machine, while cars speed through the city on highways so fast that the only thing one sees are the light traces left behind. This concept doesn’t make it into our contemporary urban structure, but it reappears in systems that consumerist society relies on.
'Light is a trace of speed, water– of fragility' is an audio-visual installation that conveys the tension between human and machine force within the parameters of hidden labour systems. The work aims to replicate the noisy, flashy and stress induced environment of the physical labour working environment through constructed soundscapes, blinking lights and storytelling voices. These elements reinforce the idea of continuous human-machine force as well as the perpetual cycle of exploitation, exhaustion and despair, while the paper cups act as a methaphor for the worker, their fragility and disposability.
