Falling through a signal | —out-of-line—

—out-of-line— (/–ool–) is a project, (re)assembly and framework that attempts at the close and critical readings of networked and telecom infrastructures, and their affective possibilities. During the month-long period of inhabiting the FICA Reading Room, phrased as an act of ‘falling through a signal’, —ool— attempts to toy with the site of a signal as a porous and modulating situation while pursuing questions of public participation. The processes and observations accumulated over a year are revisited, compiled, annotated and reflected upon to trace their cross connections and overlaps.

The display tries to engage with practices and conversations that question the role of telecommunication networks at various interfaces of cultural, political, social and personal life—from the inability to ‘connect’ over a call to navigating the IVR-paths of a call on foot, from turning the cracks of a phone screen into a canvas to sending out daily messages from a disabled dictionary, from an in-flight playlist broadcasting over radio to tracing out the maps of occupied regions, from annotating sound through a publication to screenshot-zines, spectral readings, notes, conversations and other musings from the depths of the call—all of this absorbed while falling through a signal. 

—out-of-line—, a collaborative practice instituted by Suvani Suri, Sonam Chaturvedi, Kaushal Sapre, Radha Mahendru, Aasma Tulika and Jaidev Deshpande was awarded the Public Art Grant in 2020.  To read more about the FICA Public Art Grant, click here.

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