Science Museum unveils internet 'Listening Post'

Yesterday saw the unveiling of a new exhibit at London's Science Museum that allows visitors to eavesdrop on the goings on of the world wide web.

The Listening Post, which is being exhibited for two years as a result of help from a £110,000 grant from the The Art Fund, claims to offer people a "unique portrait of the internet" by trawling - in real time - through the multitude of chat rooms and bulletin boards.

The piece is the result of a collaborative effort between sound artist Ben Rubin and statistician and artist Mark Hansen who sought to answer the question: 'What would 100,000 people chatting online sound like?'

The resulting exhibit at the museum samples live text from thousands of unrestricted internet chat rooms, message boards and other public forums, displaying the results through visual and sonic means over a curved, suspended lattice comprised of 231 small electronic screens.

Computer-synthesised voices read or 'sing', the uncensored and unedited words as they surge, flicker, appear and disappear over the assembled screens. The exhibit delivers the web snippets through seven cycles, lasting around 25 minutes in total.

"We are excited to have acquired this seminal work which offers a new context for people to question and understand the impact virtual communication is having on us," said Hannah Redler, head of arts projects at the Science Museum. "With 'Listening Post' Hansen and Rubin offer us an insight into the constant chatter of this virtual 'public square' of online social spaces. It is an awe-inspiring 'portrait of chat' that reveals people's most personal thoughts and most universal concerns."

"As a snapshot of the text-based internet, 'Listening Post' may also have a finite lifespan inviting intriguing questions about the present and future of internet and web technologies, and even perhaps the nature of museum objects," said Redler.

"'Listening Post' emerged from the messaging phenomenon of the solely text-based era of the internet over five years ago. Now, changes to forms of expression online, such as the proliferation of video and animation, will change the content source that 'Listening Post' relies upon, perhaps even rendering it silent one day."

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