University of Winnipeg and downtown community newspaper
University of Winnipeg and downtown community newspaper
In 2016, the Japanese satellite Hitomi-ASTRO-H spun out of orbit and broke up. The cause of the accident was ascribed to both software and human error. In reading multiple reports on this event, Lincoln was interested in the anthropomorphic language used to describe the satellite’s behaviour just before the breakup. Lincoln began to explore this assigned agency by speculating on what Hitomi’s “state of mind” would be from dealing with the conflicting error messages. The result is an installation of two sculptural works, Aerial Effusions and Hitomi, in a conversation. Between the two works a generative audio composition is developed based on Bach’s Thema Regium fugue where Hitomi is executing the program while being bombarded by communications from Aerial Effusions. The composition changes in tone and evokes the secondary meaning of the word fugue: a dissociative state, where a person is prone to wandering and suffers from loss of memory and identity.