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programmer / technical consultant for
the building that speaks (2000-01)

Robyn Backen's powerful and whimsical installation, the building that speaks ... can be best seen at night when, from existing gaps in the facade of Brisbane Powerhouse, lights flash Morse Code messages into the New Farm night.

The default message coded into her work reads:
"calling all ... this is our last cry before our eternal silence"
- which was one of the last Morse Code messages ever transmitted, by a French vessel in 1997.

Utilising 21st century technology, Backen - one of Australia's leading conceptual artists - has recreated and brought back to life what is essentially a dead language from centuries past. A computer terminal located inside the Powerhouse. Its touch screen invites you to an intimate exchange with the work outside. You are invited to compose your own message and to choose a time and date for its future transmission to the world. The messages accumulate as an archive, gradually adding another layer to the building's history.

It will also be possible to access the work online.

Images of Diector front end written by Josh Raymond

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