Drive premiered at Peep-in Death, a group exhibition curated by Tania Visosevic and was held upstairs at the Risque Erotica Adult Entertainment Centre sex shop as part of the Artrage Festival in 2002. It ran from 7pm to 9pm for one week. Like the majority of the works at the exhibition, Drive was situated in its own private booth and was coin activated.
Drive's aesthetic and sonic elements draw inspiration from the auto eroticism of JG Ballard's novel Crash and the investigation into animating surfaces/skins via low frequency sound. The audio component consists of three sourced audio recordings of car crashes that where slowed down and then mixed together. With the help of Rob Muir, a series of tests were done that involved running different sine tones through the skin to determine its resonant frequency. Once the appropriate sine tone was found (one that would vibrate therefore animated the stretchered skin) it was then added into the car crash mix. The result can be heard here. https://soundcloud.com/karlford/drive-installation-sound/s-Ivyxe
Maintaining the automobile aesthetic, the installation's frame was fabricated from a steel car bumper that was salvaged from a wreckers yard. The driver and skin were housed with in the frame and kept in place by dense foam. One of the initial concepts for Drive was to screen print an image onto the skin.
This process proved to be too difficult and was abandoned. For the duration of the exhibition the skin required maintenance to remain flexible. This was achieved by applying large quantities of moisturizer to the surface each night before the exhibition opened. Drive was a collaboration with Cat Hope.