PLEASE WAIT is a never ending progress-bar. This work is one in a series of pieces made from commercial LED matrix panels, drivers and custom software. LED signage is something that commands attention regardless of the “content” of the message. Its low resolution and high luminance make it an imperative we try to avoid or ignore because, like the ubiquitous bodega or street-cart sign, it is trying to sell us something we probably don’t need. As devices, electronic boards try to block out everything else, to be the only photons we see. We are so used to being sold something by these signs, that it can take a seconds, minutes, or even longer to realize that when looking at one of these pieces, we are staring at something that is more like an advertisement for itself. In the case of PLEASE WAIT we are given the even more ubiquitous “progress bar” which has become a kind of cathexis of frustration, desire, impatience, technology, gratification and anticipation that we probably spend more time staring at than the sky or our own faces. Accompanied by the equally innocuous “spinner” to denote some kind of mysterious processing going on somewhere between delivering what you want to the interface in your hands and the vast stack of technology that is software, internet and data stores from which that object of desire or information is being slowly cobbled together. This piece just advertises its own progress through random sequences that deliver nothing more that the representation of themselves. The lowly progress bar and spinner stand for a world now obsessed with speed and data.
This piece is a custom LED Matrix display panel consisting of 20 32×64 LED panels – although could be up to 100. The panels are driven by commercial Linsn boards and an Ubuntu OS micro PC running custom Python software.
The python software consists of a display framework and animation scripts for display of each work.
20 32×64 P4 LED Matrix panels
1 Linsn receiver board, 1 Linsn sender board
1 Micro PC running Ubuntu on an Intel i3 processor
PLEASE WAIT
Please Wait from Luke Murphy on Vimeo.