Frank Sabotka, portrayed by Chris Bauer in the HBO series The Wire[/caption]Frequent and infrequent travellers - this writer would like you to consider your position to a simple question: should access to the internet be freely available in hotels that can provide it? It appears to be a topic of recent online press interest, with the debate focussing on marketplace adaptibility. Jennifer Walters[ref]http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/travel/10pracwifi.html[/ref], publicist for the Thompson group of hotels, argues that
“As rates of all of the hotels have decreased, certain services that don’t affect all guests had to be altered — one such item being Wi-Fi. Not all guests use it, so to include it complimentary in the rate no longer makes sense with the consumer wanting the most attractive rates.”
On the other hand, CNN Business Travel reporter Ayesha Durgaree argues that wifi access is not a specialised service, and that the 50 percent of upmarket hotels that continue to charge for this amenity are in need of reform:
Hotels not only need to adapt to guest activity, they also need to be aware that for many guests Wi-Fi is not an extra luxury, like the mini bar or dry cleaning, it's part and parcel of the guest experience -like hot water and clean towels.
The 'Hot Water' argument, as is has come to be known, is that while some guests use more or less or possibly even no hot water during their tenancy, no respectable hotel would control access and volume of hot water, rather, they would budget the overall hot water use into their overheads. For the Hot Water argument to ring true, access to the internet, or information, needs to be analogous to water and light - with the rate of technological development increasing consumer-end possibilities, wifi architecture is in need of constant review and upgrade, while correctly installed water and power systems can be relied on to operate with minimal maintenance for many, many years. In the past, hotels would generate a considerable amount of income from business travellers making international and other calls from their rooms - it is a different marketplace today of course, as most travellers have mobile devices and (perhaps more importantly) in the face of the GFC, expense accounts have dried up. Does charging for internet access make up for this lost revenue?
It is possible that the central issue is one of control, rather than economies. The uses of internet information range from the menial to the nefarious, outside of firewalls and filters, providers have very little control. While some hotel owners point to the costs of installing and maintaining wifi as preclusive to its offer as a free service, it is interesting to observe that many hotels charging a service fee for in-room internet access offer wifi free of charge in their lobby. In these instances, a guest can access the world wide web for free, if they choose to be publicly observable doing so. It is absurd to imagine free access to hot water and light only being offered in centralised, public locations - but after all, hot water is only for cleaning, and light is only for visibility, surely no other applications are imaginable...
On the walls of Sarah Cottier gallery, framing a collection of extraordinary sculptures, hang 21 photographs. With varying levels of contrast, they seem to capture the topographic view of table lamps, and are titled "21 hotel lamps/lights for PM". While the process of creating these simple images remains mysterious, it would seem that Hanrahan has re-monetised hotel electricity: using photography to capture and commodify the light provided, free of extra charge, to hotel guests.
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Christopher Hanrahan Museums Have The Same Problems As Unions (21 hotel lamps/lights for PM) #1 2011- 2012[/caption]While these images can be seen as an ideal crystallisation of the debates surrounding artist-tourism, more interesting to this writer is the idea that these photographs provoke perhaps the central 'problem' shared by museums and unions - what can be, or should be, done with 'shared power'? The title is easily the most thought-provoking of any show attended by this writer in the last twelve months. A lot can be learned about your own position in the economy by considering your first instinctual reading of the word 'Problems' - is the word to be understood as 'the known structural or moral flaws within the organization needed to be fixed in order to operate sustainably', or as 'the challenges and tasks happily and dutifully engaged with as a properly functioning group'?Another nimble metaphor for "shared power" sits on the floor of the space - a powerboard provides the electricity to the bare light bulbs hanging from steel - also hanging from these are silk banners bearing reproductions of an antiques catalogue supplemented with politicised discussions of the Australian union movement. The pages are abstracted from their source, provided with very little context outside of the exhibitions' title.
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The steel product , SHS (Square Hollow Section), is one that Hanrahan has developed a relationship with over multiple exhibitions. In industry, the product is a problem-solver - its square design makes it easy to cut at accurate angles, the chamfered edges give the product its resistance to torsion, and its uniformity gives the product reliable and measurable load strength. Hanrahan's application of the material subverts this strength - due to the ad-hoc nature of the welded joints, the structure is only as strong as the weld, not the steel, this of course is largely academic as in this unique instance, the load is physically very light. The chamfered edges give the product some visual appeal, but SHS is definitely not considered design-grade: this is a product designed for use in outdoor signage (Road Work Ahead) and freight and carriage applications, not for visible architecture or decor. Similarly the silk banners bear the traces of commerce, the commercial print operator's job reference code is left visible by the artist. An administrative tool , these references would normally be cut away from the print, and would normally reference the client's business or project name. In this case, job label begins with "chris (final)". Simultaneously personal and coldly industrial, the job references position Hanrahan as the active prosumer, operating at the bleed between interior and industrial design. Like the weld points on the steel joints, and the deep black edges where photocopies have been made with the cover open, Hanrahan's process and the attendant visual effect is foregrounded.
Peer-based production advocates might call this holoptism - a transparency of material and methods. A cursory internet search will reveal a large number of public calls for transparency in light of recent controversies in Australia and the United States regarding union activities, a smaller number of voices demand no less loudly the same from publicly funded museums and galleries. Others question whether it is arguable that excessive transparency compromises the corporate image of these groups. Hanrahan does not appear to aggressively advocate any one particular policy. In "Problems", the artist has matched challenging content with readily consumable but ultimately satisfying format. This writer can only say bravo.
Christopher Hanrahan
Museums have the Same Problems as Unions
Sarah Cottier Gallery
18 May - 16 June 2012
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