tinfoil recorder: i am data
tinfoil recorder / i am data is a participatory room instrument in which sheets of aluminum foil are installed across the floor of a gallery. Participants fold the material inward from the perimeter, sounding the space while gradually reducing the area available for occupation. As the room contracts, participants voluntarily exit until a single performer remains within the accumulated folds.
The work records itself through the transformation of material, the compression of space, and the embodied experience of collective action. Sound is not preserved through electronic means but through the physical alteration of the recording medium itself, where the traces of participation remain embedded in the resulting sculptural form.
Originally developed for a participatory project initiated by Lucky Dragons, tinfoil recorder / i am data has since evolved through a series of collective performances involving artists, educators, students, and members of the Chumash community in Santa Barbara. Each realization transforms the room through the gradual accumulation of folds, producing a temporary composition shaped by sound, movement, and collective action.
tinfoil recorder: i am data
2019 – present
participatory room instrument
MiniBox Gallery and subsequent collaborative performances, Santa Barbara, California.