Phil Coy

b. 1971, England

I am fascinated by utilitarian devices and architecture, and see a parallel logic in systems of ordering and the structures that lay behind the information we are fed on a daily basis. Recent works have attempted to reveal the construct behind such devices or structures by manipulating the original or intended function.

I choose devices that have been or are particularly omnipotent with regard to language and communication. My choices have included a television studio, the revolution will not be televised (1998); an auto-cue, Auto-cue (Jerusalem) (1999); an Internet search engine, eleven seconds of paradise (2000); an Omega tracking station, Omega (2004); a radio broadcast, Radio Lecture (2005); and a microfilm reader, Microfilm Reader (2005).

In autumn 2004 I was able to make a video at the site of a decommissioned Omega tracking station in Trinidad. The site represents one of eight such installations around the world, which together formed the world’s first global navigation system. In 1977 the site was abandoned following the end of the American’s 36-year occupation of Chaguaramas. The video features Germain Wilson, a soprano from the Lydian Singers, who sings a single vibrato note which resonates in the structure of the dish. The extraordinary acoustic of this utilitarian architecture and the building’s original function are reactivated by the vibrato voice of the soprano.

(Text: give(a)way catalogue, 2006)