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'The
number you have dialled has not been recognised; please replace
the handset and
try again.[message repeats]'
To access this recorded message, use a BTdisconnected line
on a digital exchange. The words, 'murder victim' should appear
with this telephone number, either in the catalogue or on
the list of telephone numbers available to the users of the
project. 'Murder victim' can function as a title or can be
seen as an attachment to the disconnected telephone line's
number:
e.g. 0181 672 3250 murder victim.
The words, 'murder victim' are an attempt to personalise the
recorded message in an anonymous manner. The recorded message
itself is a kind of unanswerphone that is gratuitously
recontextualised by its 'attachment'.
By associating these two elements, the statement functions
a little like a 'non-optical' readymade which allows a fairly
specific art pre-history to be teleported into the weightless
environment that is the telephone network. In this
case however, the statement is primarily linked with the medium
in which it is presented as well as the context.
Unless a user has experienced the murder of somebody within
their immediate sphere of influence, the statement represents
an ironically general, '...intimate form of social interaction...'where
the emotive narrative that could be constructed around
the recorded message and its attachment, 'murder victim' is
both familiar and remote. As such it reinforces the notion
that we [the First World] have become impartial to atrocity
that comes from beyond our personal environment. |
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