Encryption 2008
Corten Steel
1.8mtr x 300mm x 25mtr
Winner of the Montalto Sculpture Prize 2008
Statement
After 20 years of digital technology in our midst we are still no closer to reconciling the physical phenomenon of coded messages beaming through space at the speed of light, through concrete, through glass and through our own bodies…
‘Encryption’ presents a tangible form to view while considering the way our devices can transmit messages up to a satellite above our globe, then back to another surface receiver, within an instant. The sending device encrypts voice impulses into digits; zeros and ones that fly through matter without friction, to be unscrambled by the receiver.
But where do the zeros and ones go if they are not received? Is there a secret sink of electromagnetic encryptions waiting to be discovered?
We are laying information all around us in a form unknown even to our own physical senses, yet there are stories being told everywhere. What will future civilisations find? Will these digits hold wise meaning to others?
This monument, as with all objects in our midst, sparks value and meanings encrypted in our psychs from our experiences and so many references untold. It celebrates our way of perceiving the world, and the recognition that there is far more going on around us than we can ever know.