“I am too complex, orderly,
adaptive, apparently purposeful
and beautiful to have occurred
randomly or accidentally.
Therefore I must have been
created by a sentient,
intelligent, wise and purposeful
being.”
Figurative sculptural object comprising obsolete
mobile lighting stand, pinewood chopping block
fashioned into the form of a head and
microprocessor controlled speech synthesizer
generating a continuous monologue.
Teleological argument / methodological
solipsism / the Absurd / consciousness.
Submitted by Alan Currall
Output No. 1
“I am too complex, orderly, adaptive, apparently purposeful and beautiful to have occurred
randomly or accidentally. Therefore I must have been created by a sentient, intelligent, wise
and purposeful being.”
This is a sculptural artefact that has an
abstractly figurative relationship to the viewer.
This work comprises a head-form (40cm x
60cm), crudely carved from a pine chopping
block. This is mounted on the extended
chromed steel pole of an obsolete mobile
photographic lighting stand, to a total height of
6’4”. A hollowed out cavity in the top of the
head contains a microprocessor, a speech
synthesizer, an amplifier, a pair of speakers and
a rechargeable power supply.
1
Alan Currall
The microprocessor is programmed to generate
an audio monologue, a transcription of which is
also the title of this work, using the algorithmic
phonemes of the speech synthesizer.
Over the course of a 60-minute cycle, a random
seed is introduced into the programming code,
which causes the legibility of the speech to
deteriorate from a clipped robotic tone to a
slurred, garbled, drunken sounding ramble.
Detail of output in the exhibition, Trying to cope with things that aren’t human [Part One], AirSpace Gallery, Stoke-onTrent, England
This work emerged from a period of research in
which I was attempting to explore empirical
ideas of human consciousness, which are
possibly best understood in a phenomenological
context, within a practice that I can
retrospectively locate more accurately within
the existentialist concept of the Absurd.
|n order for me to make work from the ideas
concerning, subjective experience and
consciousness, I have typically employed a
methodology that could be characterized as
absurdist. E.g. Much of my performance to
camera work involved capturing stream of
consciousness internal monologues in an
attempt to investigate the void of morality and
meaning created by a perceived lack of reason
and purpose. This approach had, for some time,
generated the conceptual context for the work I
was making. Latterly however, this approach
began to feel rhetorical and it seemed as though
I could only repeat processes that had become
too familiar to me. The questions I was asking
myself, through my work, no longer felt vital to
me and useful to my practice.
Installation shots of output in the exhibition,
Trying to cope with things that aren’t human
[Part One], AirSpace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent,
and Cell Project Space, London.
An interest in neuropsychology and consciousness studies, through the writings of V.S.
Ramachandran and Paul Broks, led me to try to understand the concerns in my work from
this clinically empirical perspective.
Scientific research into consciousness and brain function seeks, amongst other things, to
quantify and rationalize the processes by which we understand subjective, conscious
experience (or qualia) and form a unified self-image. These biological and physical
methodologies are probably best appreciated, in philosophical terms, through the discourse
of existential phenomenology. This direction of study provided useful insights into, and a
greater understanding of, causal relationships between the physical self, qualia and the
constructed self. However, this analytical deconstruction of subjectivity only brought me
back to a point of meaninglessness and amorality. It was from this position that found
myself considering the, culturally delivered, a priori idea of being and the teleological
argument for the existence of a higher purpose.
Installation shot of output in the exhibition,
Trying to cope with things that aren’t human
[Part One], Cell Project Space, London.
My practice up to this point, had largely consisted of performance to video camera monologues. The
personas I created for these works animated the ideas I had for the work in the first person.
However, in a work for the 2008 exhibition, Communication Suite, I had stepped away from this
familiar method to make a sculptural work that comprised a, vaguely, figurative object and an audio
monologue. This work, which was titled ‘In some ways it is, and it is not and it is indescribable’, used
a found block of wood that approximated the volume of my head and placed on a wooden
stand/plinth slightly above my own head height. A cavity was created inside the block, which housed
an audio playback device (an mp3 player with speakers) and this delivered a whispered internal
monologue. It was to be understood as an analogue for the author. Both the ‘log’ puns are
intentional.
When it came to developing another work from this I wanted to see how the figurative analogy could
be extended. While allowing myself to play with a more conventional approach to wood carving I
became attracted to the idea of using something as banal as a found block of wood, but in this case a
block I used to chop firewood on. This began as an attempt to see what kind of face I could carve
using very basic axes and gouges. As the likeness of a head began to appear, I started to run
monologues in my own head involving what it means to ‘be’. Forming a projected identity for the
head, I began to explore the relationship between this new individual, its sense of self and the origins
of that sense. This line of enquiry led me to research ideas of teleology. A teleological argument that
underpins a lot of so-called ‘Intelligent Design’ positions runs like this:
1. X is too complex, orderly, adaptive, apparently purposeful or beautiful to have occurred randomly
or accidentally.
2. Therefore, X must have been created by a sentient, intelligent, wise, or purposeful being.
3. God is a sentient, intelligent, wise, or purposeful being.
4. Therefore, God exists.
I discovered that variations of this equation proliferate the internet on user forums as diverse as
philosophy, body building and ‘Ultimate Guitar’. I was intrigued by what I saw as its flawed logic.
However, the apparent pliability of the argument seemed to lend itself to the emergent identity of
my wooden head.
‘In some ways it is, and it is not and it is
indescribable’, 2008. Communication
Suite, Wolfson Medical School, Glasgow
University.
Image one & a description of what we are
looking at in the context of the project.
As this head had, by now, conceptually began to
develop an identity independent of my own I felt it
needed its own voice. At this point I began
experimenting with speech synthesis. As the head had
emerged from raw material, it seemed fitting that its
voice should also. This technology is most prevalent as
computer software, but I felt it important to be able to
give this work some sculptural autonomy. Attaching it,
umbilically, to a computer would undermine this so I
decided to research the possibility of programming a,
stand-alone, hardware speech synthesizer to deliver
the monologue from within the head itself.
This was a very time consuming process with a huge
learning curve and, in hindsight, it might have seemed
wiser to outsource this part of the project. However,
learning the programming language for the speech
synthesizer allowed me to discover imperfections and
coding errors, which became a instrumental in how
the monologue was delivered and how the work,
ultimately created meaning.
The lighting stand support happened almost by
accident. I was looking for something that would give
the head human height and not simple adopt the
conventions of sculptural furniture. I tried a few
different makeshift stands and found objects, but
when I came across this stand, with it’s obsolete
futuristic styling, it seemed to perfectly compliment
the robotic nature of the voice.
Details of carved head and base of lighting
stand.
The telescopic pole penetrating the base of the head also created the impression of a
severed head on a spike. Something both macabre and darkly humorous about this
contributed greatly to the overall Absurdist impossibility of the projects aims.
This work was commissioned for the touring
exhibition ‘Trying to Cope with Things that aren’t
Human’ (Part One).
http://www.thingsthatarenthuman.com/ This
was a group exhibition, for which one other
extant video work of mine was also selected.
The exhibition was curated by Ian Brown of
Staffordshire University and received support
from the British Council, Staffordshire
University, the City of Stoke on Trent and the
Arts Council England Lottery Fund. Prior to this
stage of the tour, the exhibition had been
hosted by David Cunningham Projects, San
Francisco
http://www.davidcunninghamprojects.com/Site
/ttcinstall.html , at which I showed only the
video work. After this stage of the tour, the
exhibition went on to Cell Project Space, London.
http://www.cellprojects.org/content/tryingcope-things-arent-human-part-one .
Invite for the first exhibition this work
appeared in.