Smoke Detector
Michael Garner previously worked for the CIA. While serving < > overseas, the artist changed hotels due to an issue in his first hotel. Specifically, people at work had implied that there might be cameras or listening devices in the hotel room
After he arrived in the new hotel, he was lying in bed and looking up at the ceiling. Talking out loud to himself, something extraordinary happened. The flashing LED on the smoke detector started flashing at irregular intervals, as if it was responding to what he was saying. Finally, he asked the smoke detector, “Are you listening to me?” and it flashed affirmatively.
Many of the quotes cited in the work are by absurdist writer and philosopher Albert Camus. By coincidence, books by Camus were smuggled by the CIA into Soviet-controlled territory during the Cold War during Operation QRHELPFUL in order to expand minds and promote free thinking.