SPIRIT PHONES: electronic devices built

to communicate with the dead.

Exhibited at C3 Gallery Melbourne 2018

Through a potent mixture of projection and imagination, we are able to perceive human voices in the white noise of electronic static. The name for this phenomenon is “pareidolia” - the capacity of the brain to find familiar patterns where none exist. More than just conjuring hallucinations, this innate skill of forcing meaning into perceptual chaos is key to both human creativity and care of the self.

Drawing on one-hundred years of Electronic Voice Phenomenon research as well as the early necrophone prototypes developed by Thomas Edison, Spirit Phones is a collection of functional prototypes for communication beyond the grave. Exhibited at C3 Gallery in Abbotsford Convent, visitors are invited to test for themselves. If not connecting us with our dearly departed, these devices at least put us in touch with the vast psychological and emotional landscapes within ourselves.

Inviting participants to make contact with the dead as well as with the living, via mobile phones and other technological devices - this exhibition of works reframes our media technologies as spiritual mediums.