[The User]

Formed one morning over breakfast, [The User] inhabits the trailing edge of technology. This vantage point affords an excellent view of technology from behind. Exploring the more prosaic side of the human condition, [The User] has chosen ambient noise, the by-product of existence, as the subject of its current work. Sifting a few pertinent grains from the beach of noise is [The User]'s self-imposed and inexplicable task. [The User] takes its name from a term employed by our technocratic society, especially in design-related fields such as engineering, architecture and software development. The term 'user' objectifies and reduces individuality to an abstract and generic ideal. This reduction is employed wherever abstract rational methodology is applied to situations involving real people. Once this reduction is made, it becomes much easier to treat the faceless, formless 'user' in an inhuman fashion. In our society we employ the impersonal term 'user' to justify the infliction of neon lighting, plastic cutlery and Muzak on a huge majority of our population. [The User] is an artists' collective formed of two members: architect Thomas McIntosh and composer Emmanuel Madan.