Chamber of Grievances
Too often in our lives we suppress our anger and try to cast aside our problems with ourselves and others. Therefore, we have created the "Chamber of Grievances" to provide a medium by which one may air their frustrations and disappointments about an individual, varied transgressions, or life in general. The installation is comprised of an isolated room in which one may wield a computerized stress-relief ball and air their grievances into a microphone; the griever's speech is interactively altered to mask his/her speech during tirades of particularly heated content, while the anger is retained. The griever's warped voice is fed back in addition to being played for an audience of grievees or external observers. The Chamber of Grievances does not seek to expel or solve problems in our lives or relationships with others. Rather, it recognizes visceral, vocal expression as natural and valid acts of relieving oneself of grief. In this way, the mediated act of performing one's grievance can be both healing and entertaining.
Artist Bio
Lisa Tolentino is a Media Arts and Sciences doctoral student in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering at ASU. Her research tackles disability awareness from socio-cultural, educational, and technological perspectives through performative community events and partnerships with cultural workers in social justice and special education. She received her B.S. in Computer Science and M.A. in Contemporary Music Performance (percussion) from University of California, San Diego. She serves as a director for urbanSTEW, a not-for-profit collective creating and supporting art and innovative technology for use by communities; and performs regularly with Crossing 32nd Street, a Phoenix-based contemporary and experimental music performance group.
Alex Fink was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Long term interests in math and science coupled with a joy of music have led him to study new ways of creating music and sound. He received the B.S.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from Tulane University, and is presently pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Arizona State University, conducting research in sound synthesis and analysis in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering.
Dustin M. Chaffin is an MFA candidate in the Theatre and Interdisciplinary Digital Media program through the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. His focus began in sound design for theatre and has recently expanded to interactive art, audio recording, new instrument fabrication, and collaborative development of new theatre. His sound design credits include one off-Broadway premier in New York, several productions at Baylor University, and several productions at ASU.