The Voice & Biometrics are two print works made with David Krut Print Workshop with printmakers Jill Ross and Talya Lubinsky, and engineer Dino Fozzotti over 2012/13.
The prints are made by etching, screen-print, colour paper overlay and electronic components. Specially designed frames have been made to house both an external speaker, switch and power source for each print.
The prints have been on exhibition at the David Krut Gallery, the 2013 Joburg Art Fair, and an exhibition titled I Take it All Back at Nirox Projects Gallery in Johannesburg.
More on the Prints
The pair refer to the growing power that Africa has in digital and mobile media, but specifically the awkward relationship between this power and the surrounding underdevelopment. Here exists a wonderful technological disjuncture that is both threatening and seemingly harmless.
The circuits are mostly analogue and generate sounds that try to electronically replicate sounds I had recorded in Zimbabwe. The sounds speak of a different ‘time’ to the digital – grass in the wind, insects and birds. Playing on the relationship and disjuncture of technology, power and its failures. The circuits additionally turn on light circuits that are printed using conductive ink.
These prints are the start of an experimental engagement with etching, print making and circuit making. Though not visible themselves the under lying sound circuits were made using the same etching techniques, as the plates that made the printed images.