Here ends project one.

Project One
Final Post

The Concept
The story chosen from the Museum of Wellington is from 1927, the year that the 2YA radio station went to air. It provided new form of entertainment and a sense of connection beyond what was within the accessible household. With a mission to 'radiate joy', the radio station operated between the hours of 7:30-10pm (or there abouts dependent on the broadcast) with music and entertainment but eschewed any political or controversial matters on air.

In our age, the 1920s is often reflected on as a time of affluence and joy however, for New Zealand it was also a decade of racism at it's worse; one of only two countries in the world to [significantly] impose a Poll tax on Chinese immigrants (Canada, the other), our leaders made it increasingly difficult for the race to enter NZ and, once arrived, kiwis were far from welcoming.

It is this paradox that I am exploring through this project; that, whilst the national broadcasting agenda was to 'radiate joy', was it really an exhibition of affluent, joyous culture- or a political agenda to indulge public ignorance of a situation of poverty?

The Fruition of Concept
The interface is not activated until the set of silencers are set upright and placed on the user's ears. The interface explores the key idea of instead of 'tuning into' the contemporary society and its issues, listeners to the 2YA station were in fact 'tuning out' to what was going on around them.
Therefore, stage one [activation of the interface] is 'tuning out'. For this, images of the 1920s New Zealand affluent culture are played over a background of Wellington in 1927.
Stage Two is to 'tune in'- by squeezing the silencers closer to one's ears- as if trying to listen harder- this solicits another mouse click, overplaying images of Chinese immigration and poverty in NZ such as scenes from the gold mines and tax certificates.

The object also allows for the quality of the image to be 'tuned', like an old wireless.

The object uses original Construction ear muff shells in order to associate the imagery of safety: blocking out undesirable or harmful noise, such as immigration at that point in time was viewed, certainly not by all, but by many.


12 macro patches and interpolations-a-plenty later...