Debriefing the MA/MFA in Transdiciplinary New Media Student Exhibition

We interviewed Max Franklin, faculty member and student in the MA/MFA Transdiciplinary New Media program, on their group exhibition at the M* Gallery that took place on October 20th 2015 as part of Paris Digital Week.

Our project was a reflection on society’s need to constantly find answers to existence through instantaneous digital means. Through utilizing traditional methodology used in ancient Chinese culture – which, is time consuming and offers subjective answers – we parodied modern culture’s need for specific results.

The ancient Chinese methodology is centered around the practice of Oracle Bone Divination; a wise man will write a question on a bone and crack it under extreme heat which would result in an answer through the reading of the fissure.

In place of bones, we used oyster shells and sound recorded the internal cracking and through digital means, generated ambiguous sonic answers to the top nine questions asked on google about existence.

The questions
What is time, how do I heal a broken heart, how can I sell my soul, what do people see when they close their eyes, what happens after death, can money make me happy, what are the origins of life, will I find my soulmate, why can’t I sleep

Hear the sound recordings!
To find out more about the project, read their blog!