Public Intervention
Night Stories
In the early throes of the COVID pandemic, I wrote two short texts, capturing the collective sense of isolation, boredom, and the blurring boundaries between work and leisure in our digital realm. As the virus reshaped our daily acvities, it provoked thoughts on evolving work modalities. Each poem is centered on an unnamed protagonist—the worker and the swimmer. Each comprises ninety-nine words with abrupt line breaks and a lack of punctuation, intentionally slow down the swift reading.
After dark, I travelled around the city with a power generator and a digital projector. I projected these poems on arbitrary architectural facades in various urban neighbourhoods. The streets were often empty without much action due to public health regulations. The power generator’s loud noise would sometimes attract a few residents to look at the projection from their home windows. As I travelled to more locations, I started to realize that what the texts said was less important. The interplay of projection light and sound forged a pulse in the stillness, breathing life into a subdued cityscape, offering a fleeting yet vital sense of dynamism.
After dark, I travelled around the city with a power generator and a digital projector. I projected these poems on arbitrary architectural facades in various urban neighbourhoods. The streets were often empty without much action due to public health regulations. The power generator’s loud noise would sometimes attract a few residents to look at the projection from their home windows. As I travelled to more locations, I started to realize that what the texts said was less important. The interplay of projection light and sound forged a pulse in the stillness, breathing life into a subdued cityscape, offering a fleeting yet vital sense of dynamism.
