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This piece consists of a population of small flashlights that are operated by an electromechanical system that allows them to rotate, swivel up and down, and turn on and off. Each singular unit is mounted atop one of thirty pillars ranging in height from 34” to 74”. The microprocessor system that controls the movement of the unit also contains a photosensitive electric eye which, when directly lit by the light from another flashlight unit, switches the receiving unit off if it is on, or alternatively, on if it is off. The units are also able to respond to the total amount of light in the surrounding space, moving faster as the ambient light decreases. This allows the entire population to slow its movement as more of the lights become activated, making interaction between the units more active.

Each unit is then able to speak and to listen, to see and be seen. Although they are constructed with roughly identical physical details, each unit has a tendency to develop its own personality and relationships with other units in the space. Generated from a desire to create a population of individuals that is able to communicate, in a limited fashion, information about their presence or absence to the rest of the group, this individualized interaction is what moves the installation from simply being a set of on/off switches to being an investigation of the way that we as people interpret the behaviors of others, whether human or machine. Watching this population of responsive entities is a way of watching ourselves, seeing our assumptions and biases, our means of interpreting behavior and communications. As do nearly all works of art, this full range of mechanical units in constant communication and exchange, becomes a kind of self-portrait, a way in which we step back from ourselves in order to better understand. For this reason, the titling selected is intended to make possible all interpretations that can be brought to bear in the viewer’s experience of the piece in the same way that our own interactions are invariably colored by the contexts we bring to them.