Total Turn On

"Total Turn On"

In Residence at CounterPulse Project Space Feb 27-March 8, 2017. Public Opening: March 7, 2017

How do we collectively act to give power? How do we acknowledge our own? Within the context of a former porn theater, is there an implicit connection of arousal between the red indicator light on a power strip and the red of a red-light district? How many indicator lights would it take to light up a dark room?

For the CounterPulse Project Space, Alice Combs was in residence for one week building a light installation composed entirely of indicator lights on power strips and chargers that do not actively charge anything. Chargers had varying-color indicator lights and were sourced from lost and founds, thrift stores, street hustlers, an electronics recycling center, and donations. With this project, she attempts to elevate the mundane and tedious umbilical cord of electronics to constellations of light and color.

The state of being “turned on” is one of implicit power, metaphorically represented by a winking tree of power strips and chargers in a dark room. The at best, forgettable, and at worst, nuisance glow of an indicator light is allowed to shine for its own sake in this project, not as a shuttle of power to other things.