Reva Stone – Portal Revisited 2019

Portal Revisited 2019 is a revision of a responsive installation work that was begun in 1999 but wasn’t completed until this year.  It uses iPhone 4’s to investigate how networked devices for human communication have dramatically transformed the intersections between our bodies, our consciousness and our machines. The phones are programmed to perform a series of specific behaviours that give them the appearance of sentience.

The use of recorded audio and video, rotating motors, video capture to evolve the content, and the phone’s accelerometer for touch response all add to the illusion of consciousness.

The cell phones behave as nodes in a multi-agent system, sometimes appearing to be partially interconnected, sometimes completely interconnected, and at other times entirely autonomous. A small server program handles all of the video, audio and signal activity. When not activated by a viewer, each cell phone muses aloud, creating multiple streams of consciousness. When activated by a viewer, a single cell phone can perform a series of individual behaviors that makes it appear that the phone is conversing one on one with the viewer. It can also combine with the other cell phones to appear to be a single, group entity.