Intimate Fields is a compact installation work that can be placed on a small table for display. The installation consists of a wooden laser cut box with multiple compartments. The box is embedded with an NFC (Near Field Communication) chip reader connected to a Raspberry Pi and miniature thermal printer. Items in the box include printed scrolls and notes containing NFC stickers, textile items containing knotted codes, and a series of five ceramic/steel rings with embedded NFC chips. On touching the scrolls, notes and rings to the NFC reader, scripts are triggered to generate love poetry remixed from a range of historical and contemporary texts. The poetry snippets are simultaneously printed locally and posted automatically to twitter. The individual printed messages can be taken away by the viewer as a keepsake. The box plays upon the concept of the “poesy”or “posy ring”, a jewelry item customarily used in the early modern period to convey messages of love, fidelity and faith. Examples of these rings are held in archives such as the Ashmolean. The embedded chips in the modern rings enable a new type of “secret message” to be performed as a work of networked electronic literature, while calling back to the physically intimate nature of the original wearable item. Materials: Wood, paper, textiles, NFC-embedded components, electronic components, thermal printer. Technical requirements: Internet access, electrical outlet. Accompanying computer and screen (or laptop) to display live twitter feed (optional).
(Source: ELO 2017: Book of Abstracts and Catalogs)
