Lena Oehmsen

Excerpt from a communication archive of the 21c (Decemer 2010)

Millions of people com­municate their thoughts via social net­works to hun­dreds of »friends« on a daily basis. In most cases meant for the moment, the con­stantly up­dated mes­­sages have an ephemeral quality – reflect on today‘s fast-pace na­ture and an increasing com­mu­ni­cation frenzy. Not disap­pearing when updated, the posts remain online and are acces­sible at all times. They are potential begin­nings of con­ver­sations waiting for com­ments and reviews. 

The com­ments manifest them­selves on the pa­per of the index cards, but have lost their cur­rency – they belong to the past. With the daily volley of new mes­sages the single piece of in­for­­mation passes into silence. Flip­ping through the archive the viewer can pull the single post into focus and end its virtual ephe­ma­rality.

Excerpt from a communication archive of the 21st century (December 2010), 2 alu­mi­ni­um stands, wood, 3 card­board boxes, ca. 1700 index cards, lamp,  80 × 90 × 145 cm, 2010