Mission Crimps

Background In response to the exhibition theme for ‘Freedom of Sleep,’ this work explored tensions between sleep and non-sleep, and the potential for reimagining the night and its activities. It investigated the desynchronisation of the body through our norms and ideas of productivity, efficiency, attention, distraction, vigilance, free time, inertia, and cycles of activity and rest. Essayist Jonathan Crary saw sleep as the last barrier to capitalism because it represents a pause, a break in our 24/7 society. For artists Andy Warhol and Tehching Hsieh, sleep is a recurring theme. Proust pictures himself as an insomniac taking refuge in literature, while Levinas saw insomnia as a pathway to insight. This research considers how sleep allows us to resolve the antinomic framings encountered in the everyday. Contribution The video Mission Crimps presents a scenario that is audible as much as it is visible, reminding us of the non-singularity of our experiences. We created analogous views of the calibrations and configurations of the human mind using an old telephone exchange with its reams of colourful cabling, mechanical switches and exchange circuits. The work expands the depiction of the brain’s neural networks into the natural environment, revealing parallel systems of watery flows, dendritic spreads of tree branches, mountainous networks and dynamic exchange points. It suggests that like the brain, the world around us is always re-wiring and making new connections. Significance Commissioned by curator Anabelle Lacroix, the work was shown at Fondation Fiminco: an art and cultural space within the cultural district of Romainville, France. The venue supports international contemporary artists with exhibition spaces and an artist residency program. The work was a finalist in the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, an annual art awarded by the Campbelldown Arts Centre. In 2023, the work was selected for Melbourne Now, at the National Gallery of Victoria.