Porous

Porous is a distributed subliminal audio installation. Each kitsch rock-speaker contains a microphone, microcontroller, and speaker. The system listens for acoustic cover and, when ambient sound is loud enough, emits a short looped song just below conscious audibility. Operating at the edge of perception, Porous seeds a catchy earworm that may not register in the moment, but later resurfaces as humming, recognition, or social repetition without a clear source. The song’s lyrics are intentionally unambiguously moral, staging an ethical contradiction: messages about kindness, safety, and responsibility are delivered through covert manipulation rather than consent. Porous investigates subliminal influence, behavioral conditioning, unconscious friction, and the politics of persuasion embedded within contemporary systems. Rather than representing these dynamics, it makes them spatially and experientially felt through public encounter.