Randy Moss states that his sound and video installation, Dislocator, "operates like an ultrasound system used for prenatal imaging. It uses high-frequency sound waves to measure a visitor's position and then produces an image interpreting these measurements. This image functions as a lens through which the visitor views her presence in a shifting landscape evocative of a forming human embryo."
Alternately, Dislocator's oblong video screen and red dot bouncing within a large flickering white pupil suggest an altar (or a basic star chart) reconstructed from inscrutable interstellar transmissions partially decrypted here on Earth into thrumming sine tones, a scraping, almost scabby, whoosh-whoosh-whoosh sound, and the soft ticking of plastic beads. Or maybe the Bauhaus never left Dessau and made a music video plucked from an alternate future where jazz and the blues never happened. Intended to be experienced one person at a time, perhaps Dislocator presages a time when an all-seeing, computerized Divinity watches us, secretly calibrating our world, and responding perceptibly enough to make us think it loves us. Or maybe I just really liked it.
Dislocator runs through Fri May 28 (Jack Straw Productions, 4261 Roosevelt Way NE, 634-0919), Mon-Fri 9 am-6 pm, free.