F2T (2004) Digital Arts by Thomas Charveriat

F2T is an interactive musical installation about “argot” and its different contemporary applications. What is argot? It is at the same time nation and language. It’s a coalition between people and speech. A hundred and fifty years ago, when Victor Hugo introduced in “Les Miserables”, a character using slang, there was a lot of commotion amongst the readers. “-What? How? Argot? Argot is horrible, it is despicable! Argot is the language of the thieves, of the worst kind of human beings!” It’s true, there is no doubt about it, but when you have to examine a wound, a society, since when is it a prejudice to scrutinize, to get to the bottom of an investigation? The thinker who refuses to ignore the argot is like the surgeon who ignores an ulcer or a wart. It’s like the philologist that questions the need to examine a particular language phenomenon, or a philosopher who doubts to scrutinize a society. For the people who still ignore its meaning, argot is a conjunction between a literary phenomenon and its social consequence. SMS language (Short Message Service), would have surprised Victor Hugo : “will spk 2 u l8r ” (“I will speak to you later.”) or “wan2tlk” ("Want to talk?"). About eight and a half million messages like these run daily through Spanish mobile phones.n January 2003, Forrester Consultants, calculated that about 25 billion SMS messages were sent around the world in 2002. New technologies impose their language. Now, a flood of letters and signs, a hieroglyphic argot at the middle of the road between telegram and stenography dominates the virtual world. The “ :`-( “ (“I am crying and I am sad” ), “atb” (“All the best”), “cu @” (“see you around”), “thx” (“Thanks”) arrive with power. F2T, a creation by artists Thomas Charveriat(France) and Frank Plant(United States), combines sculpture, robotics, hip hop, and SMS messaging to explore the ways technology shapes the development of language, particularly new forms of slang. Viewers interact directly with the artwork by sending it a short text message from their mobile. Once received, the SMS is scanned for frequently used words and, when a match is found, the four elements are activated. The main piece, "Rapper" begins to twist and wave his hand while mouthing a rap based on the message sent, the new lyrics culled from more than 130 different hip hop phrases written by Amsterdam-based lyricist and composer Jim Barnard. The rest of the piece is simultaneously set into motion: "Boom Box" starts flashing and blasting out the song while "Joy Ride" a bouncing low-rider, and "Shake Ass" (looks like it sounds) begins to move, triggered by ambient sound sensors. When the song is finished, a thermal printer spits out a souvenir with the original SMS and the words of the "Rapper".
Work created in collaboration with Frank Plant
Sound Design by Jim Barnard and Denis Menard
Voice and Lyrics by Taïro Nimaga, Jim Barnard and D. Bluntid