Shredder Piece 1 -
October 2007
(160 x 180 x 60 cm)
paper shredder, paper leaflets, motion sensor,
micro switch, wood, foam rollers.
This was my first experiment into the notion of involuntary participation.
A motion sensor caused the a paper shredder to work for a short time when ever someone walked past. The piece was arranged in a way that dictated that people had walk past the sensor to get a good view of the nest of shredded materil that slowly built up over the course of the installation.
Aside from the involuntary initiation of the shredding process, I built a foot switch into the circuit that allowed viewers to stop the shredder from working. This meant that conscientious viewers could minimise the effect they were having. But only until they chose to leave the installation space, thus having to pass the motion sensor once more!
The paper I used came from some of the 6000 leaflets that I rescued from the skip at the DIY store I used to work at. I spent hours on end sticking them together in a large roll, so that they could feed through the paper shredder easily and consistantly. The amount I stuck together (at least 300) lasted almost exactly an hour, with people coming in and out roughly every 10 minutes.
The initial concept was that the viewer had an effect on the installation space as an environment. Although the space became suddenly filled with whirring noise of the shredder, the shredded material itself failed to occupy the space as I had imagined it might. The paper shreddings formed a tall nest-like column as time progressed, whereas I had anticipated for it to spread out across the floor.
