David Rokeby’s “n-cha(n)t”, shown here at  the Walter Phillips Gallery at the Banff Center for the Arts, came from the desire to “hear a community of computers speaking together”. The installation consists of a series of monitors displaying pictures of human ears that chant words. These monitors are then linked by a network of microphones and voice recognition software that allows them to “intercommunicate” with each other as well as the audience. When the system is left uninterrupted, the monitors synchronize and chant similar words. However, when the audience speaks or makes noise in the gallery space, it shifts the computer network away from the “synchronized chant” and into a “party-like chaos of voices” to simulate an alteration in “state of mind”. I found this piece was a unique way of giving human-like features to computers by having them interacting with both the audience and each other.

“David Rokeby : N-cha(n)t.” Web. 10 Sept. 2011. <http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/nchant.html>.