Troika’s ‘Electroprobe Installations’ is a series of site-specific installations which incorporate an assemblage of local electronic and electric objects alongside a magnetic microphone called the Electroprobe. The microphone imbues the inanimate with life by ‘listening’ to the otherwise inaudible, internal sounds of its surrounding objects.
The ‘Electroprobe’ is a device for listening in on our electronic surroundings: electric murmurs, magnetic hums and inaudible whistles. Originally part of a group of objects termed the Subjective Tool Series, which began in 2003 with the ‘SMS Guerrilla Projector’, the ‘Electroprobe’ is an attempt to subvert the inherently rational, objective nature of tools and everyday commodities by affording them a seemingly emotional, autonomous life.
The third in the series, ‘Electroprobe Installation #3’, Gijón Magnetica’, a chaotic assemblage of electric/electronic objects sourced from the Gijón area: electric appliances, mobile phones chargers, clocks, LEDs, transformers and a custom made ‘Gijón’ neon sign, was installed in 2008 at LABoral, Gijon as part of group exhibition ‘Nowhere/Now/Here’, curated by Roberto Feo and Rosario Hurtado.
Arranged by their electromagnetic tunes, the various objects manifest as an electronic ‘orchestra’ which the viewer is able to hear with the use of the ‘Electroprobe’ ; symphonies and dialogues between otherwise inanimate and inaudible objects, become audible through headphones.