“A celebration of communication” – Sean Hathaway

There is a reason inanimate objects have a huge roll in horror films and nightmares of every average human child – they are terrifying when they come alive and convey some form of emotion. Another relatively scary place is the internet. Most of the times, you won’t come across the unnerving content of the internet by accident – you have to actively search for it. There is however easier to access content across the web that can be equally terrifying; the emotions and confessions of random strangers across the free information highway we call the internet.

So what happens when you combine these two things? The answer: eighty identical teddybears hung up on a wall, feeding on emotional content from the web and translating it into one out of twenty-four emotions, which is then read by one of the teddy bears in a computer generated voice. One at a time, for one minute, indefinitely.

The purpose of this installation is best told by the artist of “T,ED”, Sean Hathaway;

“Emotions are plastered onto the internet and it’s become a listening tool for those who need it, yet, the information that’s posted online are futile and nobody is doing anything with it…”

A reflection;

Sure, Sean, nobody is doing anything with the vast amounts of emotions and thoughts floating through the cyber space, but, in the words of Ian Malcolm; “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should“.

Look, I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy this installation, the thought behind it is actually quite interesting. So much information is being bombarded onto the vast canvas that is the internet, and the concept of translating it into something tangible and real is very fascinating to say the least… But why did it have to be bears screwed to a wall screaming out the lost cries for help on the internet in a monotone, robotic voice? The approach taken to this intriguing subject is quite paradoxical; nothing is “being done” with the emotions of the internet, okay, eighty stuffed bears are now translating it into one out of twenty-four emotional sentences and screaming it out into a room, better.

10/10, would scare my future kids with this installation.