Lorna Brown

Listening Time: unknown

2023
Hand embroidery on cotton
16x16"

QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response Code) is the trademark for a type of matrix barcode first designed for the Japanese automotive industry. The QR Code system has become popular outside the automotive industry due to its fast readability and greater storage capacity compared to standard UPC barcodes. Initially used for product tracking, item identification, time tracking, document management, and so forth, QR codes have become ubiquitous in marketing and promotional materials.

Listening Time: unknown, when scanned by a device’s scanning app, converts to a display of the word ‘catastrophe. Hand-embroidered over the course of several months, the title refers to the unknown hours I spent listening to audio content, usually focusing on political and/or climate calamities, while embroidering.

The process of using a simple cross-stitch to create the grid-based pattern removed all decision-making in the execution of the work beyond the initial concept, requiring me to perform a repetitive, time-consuming action in a completely predictable system. These aspects, characteristic of the experience of boredom, become art, which relies on the pre-conditions of boredom: relative material security and sufficient time to create or consume. Listening Time: unknown is a companion piece to Listening Time: 460h, 31m of 2014