September 12 - December 8, 2012
ZERO1 Biennial
The ZERO1 Garage
439 S. 1st Street, San Jose, CA
Tel: 408.916.1010 Web: zero1.org
The theme of the 2012 ZERO1 Biennial is "Seeking Silicon Valley." The Biennial will feature work by a diverse group of local, national, and international contemporary artists whose work will transform Silicon Valley into an epicentre for innovative art production and public experience. San Jose will serve as the central hub of Biennial programming and street activation events during the Biennial opening weekend of September 12-16, 2012 and Biennial exhibitions and activities will span the Bay Area from September - December 2012.
Cheang Shu Lea, an artist, conceptualist, filmmaker and networker, is invited to exhibit her work BABY WORK in the Biennial. BABY WORK, designed as a performative installation, situates the public as BABY who works to align lost ME (Memory-Emotion) data. The installation as a performance, the performance as an installation, BABY WORK gathers piles of discarded keyboards in an open public space. A crane machine is erected among the piles of broken keyboards. The crashing arm of the machine picks up and throws about the keyboards, trashing them into pieces of keys. The public visiting the installation are asked to put on a pair of white gloves, walk about in the keyboard trash piles and collect shattered keys. Following the collection, they further arrange randomly the keys on a large intelligent wall surface made out of metal plates inside the keyboards. This wall surface is wired and programmed to trigger sound notes. Each letter or key when placing on the wall, the surface generates a sound note. With many BABIES (the public) working, sound notes formulated into a tune, tunes synchronized into a sonic expression of collective work by babies.