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In this installation, two opposing walls frame a disjointed conversation between the viewer/participant and the actual elements of the artwork.

In the first wall, a microphone cord passes through a small hole and is connected to a speaker on the opposing side. Additional hidden cords route the microphone through an effects processor where the participants voice is digitally manipulated before it passes through the speaker. The microphone is poised to capture both ambient noise and direct participatory speaking, singing, etc.

On the other wall a rear-projected video rests flush with the surface of the wall. The video image also has a sound component that can be subtly heard through the velum that holds the image (those speakers are mounted directly behind the screen). This audio simply coincides with the video (sounds of crashing waves). This is a running loop of a seemingly intent listener engaged in a conversation with sounds that emanate from the opposing wall.

The video image is the objective responder - nodding with great understanding and appearing to hang on every word of a conversation. As a video, and as a mechanical discussant, the responder of course has no real existence or actual capacity to inform discussion. It exists solely as an object of the viewers' consciousness, albeit appearing to have perception and awareness of the external world, and seemingly participating in it. Dialogue does occur between the video and the transmitted sounds of the opposing speaker, and ultimately a complete and improvisational interaction emerges as participants invoke the mechanical reciprocation of the video listener.

As an added layer, the person who uses the microphone to activate this conversation is dramatically separated from the view of the video responder. Only a third-party observer may witness the video "reacting" to the speaker. As such, this viewer is implicated as an eavesdropper - but one who actually has greater insight (more direct observation) of the so-called conversation that she has overheard.

With many interpretive layers, The Objective Responder raises questions about contemporary modes of communication, the advancement of cyber technology, and the troubling state of human interaction in an increasingly mediated society.

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