9/8 blog

this blog follows one of the works by the artist Alen Bigalow. The work i am discussing is called What They Said (While We Were Sleeping). This was found on the website Turbulence.org along with many of his other works. The interactive video starts off as a screen with different radio channels you can tune to. Each channel deals with a different subject, freedom of speach, privacy, violence and more. Within each channel there are fast flashing pictures that go along with flashing text that lets you read a sentence about one of these subjects. This piece is very interesting to me for the fact that it catches your attention by using an interactive set up, like most of his other works, and deals with the irony of situations we are very familiar with yet do not think about deeply. The first view you get on this "TV" is of the freedom of speech. The text that flashes is Freedom Of Speech Is Not Free. This could represent how much we are censored in today's society. through TV or just in general what we can and cannot say in public. The second screen says Privacy Is A Public Trust. This line is very true when you think about it. Privacy is only protected by laws we have established in our government. However it is a trust that the people around us wont invade our privacy. The third screen says We Must Limit Our Rights To Preserve Them. This is like saying without setting laws and regulations on our rights there would only be chaos and unruly behavior. Next is We Must Kill To Stop The Killing. Meaning that we have to fight to stop the fighting or start wars to stop larger wars. After this there is Poverty is a Detour on the Road to Wealth. Alot of people have to go through tough times financially to be able to make money. Especially with the economy of today alot of people loose their jobs and fall into debt. A lot never come out of poverty while some come out even better than before. Next is Ask Questions Only When There Are No Answers. This is more on a philosophical level than the other channels are. It could mean that we should think more about how things are or why something is without an answer. The second to last channel is Play Not to Excess but to Ease the Path to Work. This is saying basically how it is read. One should not "play" all the time but only play enough to ease the mind to finish the job that needs to be done. Lastly there is We Must Register Our Identities to Keep Them Safe. If we do not have our identities registered or known, then somebody could become us, without any trouble at all and keep using our identity for things like robberies and spending of our money. Overall this work makes one think about what we have today and how ironic some of the things we do are.