This work was first commissioned for Next Wave’s Countercurrents series and shown at Brunswick Mechanics Institute. It has since been commissioned for re-development and presentation at Bargoonga Nganjin Library, and is an adaptable work that can be re-made in response to different locations and community input.

Department of Lost Notes is a four-channel video that attempts to capture the impact of receiving large amounts of emotionally charged data (texts, poems, quotes, emails) from the perspective of a digital device. Department of Lost Notes operates from a speculative position that imagines a smart phone organised by the digital interactions that replace face-to-face during lockdowns and periods of isolation. Department of Lost Notes gathers multiple experiences of isolation through the intermediary of a phone, anonymising and collating diverse text submissions from the public that capture their digitised personal thoughts.

This work archives community submissions to construct a collective experience of isolation and distance. In each iteration, people in the local community are invited to submit notes from their phone, which make up the text of the work.