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What God hath wrought ?!

2017

Manuel Abendroth, Jérôme Decock, Els Vermang

What God hath wrought ?!
dimensions

wall mounted, variable dimension and arrangements

different arrangements of 16 modules of 30x60cm

material

16 custom tailored telegraphs, paper

abstract

16 telegraphs sent the first message transmitted in the US on May 24, 1844, continuously from one station to the other. Their sounds fill the space, and rolls of paper drift on the floor tracing their exchange. In time, collisions and errors appear, altering the original message of 'See what God has done'.

project text
The title of the installation quotes a line from the Book of Numbers in early modern English. It was the first message ever transmitted by telegraph in 1844. Its invention marks the beginning of communication technology based on electric binary coding and the dematerialisation of information, its separation from its material inscription. The 16 telegraphs that make up the installation are cross-linked in a network, while sending and receiving the quote from one to the other. The hammering sound of their keys and the beeping of their receivers translate the messages into sound and the rolls of paper drifting on the floor trace their exchange. In time, collusions and mistakes appear in the closed system and alter the signals - the original message. The Morse orchestra deals with rationalism and its belief in progress and posits by contrast a self-regulating system in which error rules and becomes the parameter of its evolution.
history

2023 ___ The Seduction of the Bureaucrat, group show, De Garage, Mechelen 

2019 ___ Imaging Cities, group show, Song Eun Art Space, Seoul 

2019 ___ Signals, group show, CTM Vorspiele, Belgium Embassy, Berlin 

2018 ___ A Brave New World, group show, MAAT, Lisbon 

2017 ___ NODE 17, group show, Studio Naxos, Frankfurt 

2017 ___ Ososphere, group show, La COOP, Strasbourg 

2016 ___ Eutopia, group show, Museum M, Leuven

art installations by the Belgian art studio LAb[au] working at the crossing of art&language, art&architecture in the tradition of concrete, conceptual, kinetic and digital art

LAb[au] is working on the relationship between: architecture & art - language & art, at the crossing of conceptual, concrete, and digital art.

official logo of LAb[au]
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