Christopher Baker, Hello World!, 2008. 2-hour looping video and sound
3rd JANUARY 2012 – 28th FEBRUARY 2012
The Saatchi Gallery is opening its first ever screening room for film and video. In a space on Duke of York’s Square, a stone’s throw from the Gallery in Chelsea, Saatchi Screen, in partnership with The Cadogan Estate and Hugo Boss, will launch with the first UK presentation of Christopher Baker’s video installation, Hello World! Or: How I Learned to Stop Listening and Love the Noise.
Hello World! is a large-scale audio visual installation comprised of thousands of video diaries gathered from the internet. Each of the 5,000 videos that make up Hello World! features a single individual speaking candidly to an imagined audience from a private space such as a bedroom, kitchen, or dorm room. The multi-channel sound composition glides between individuals and the group, allowing viewers to listen in on individual speakers or become immersed in the overall cacophony.
The project is a meditation on the contemporary plight of democratic, participative media and the fundamental human desire to be heard. The artist Christopher Baker, who originally trained as a scientist, is inspired by the interconnectivities – visible and invisible – present in the 21st-century urban landscape and is interested in the practical implications of our increasingly networked lifestyles: ‘Primary to this task is an exploration of the ways we imagine and represent ourselves before (potentially massive) audiences and the ways we navigate and abide in public space. With these interests at heart, large-scale video projections allow me to create works that fuse existing physical spaces with more ephemeral digital elements, resulting in revelatory and sometimes disorienting forms.
