Databells & Vernissage Event

Databells is an immersive experience featuring a quirky and eclectic collection of upcycled bells (from cowbells, to jingle bells, to doorbells, to giant bells), all interconnected via sophisticated software which makes each bell chime in time to a large variety of statistics. Bells might ring when: “a star is born in our galaxy”, “someone dies due to smoking”, “a ship passes through the Suez canal”, “an Amazon package is delivered”, “Someone in this room just farted”, and so on. This conceptual art piece gently guides the experiencer through a winding path of custom wood tables, all arranged in an experiential statistical symphony.

For more info visit https://www.salondesbananes.com/databells

According to Rich: ​
The interesting thing about bells, and building a project around them, is that bells are multicultural. There are bells everywhere. There are bells on every continent and every country and city, and in everyone's life. Bells tell you when to go to the next class. Bells tell you when someone got married or someone died. Bells will tell you that an attack is coming or a fire is occurring. Bells have these built-in emotions to them—happiness and sadness, and alarm and fear. That's the incredible platform that this project is built on.

Bells have a universality and they have emotions, and that ties perfectly into bringing in the data sources that also have emotions.

There's a discoverability to Databells: when you walk up and you look at a bell, the first thing you see is a bell, and you see a mechanism for ringing it. Then you hear it ringing, and you might ask yourself, “why”? You may then notice a little sign: it says ‘People born in Canada’. And then you see all the other bells have a little sign as well, and you start to realize there's a whole other level of depth to this installation. Now you may want to go around and see, asking yourself “why is that bell over there ringing like crazy”? “Why is that bell over there just waiting”? “What is it going to ring for”? It is this curiosity that will compel you to explore the exhibit more and more.