Niels Gercama, Jason Clark

_{We All Scream For Ice Cream!}

(2023)

Audiovisual installation / Multi-channel video
(iPhone, projector, laptop, steel, glass, silicone, human hair, plastic, waste)    

In Jim Jarmush' seminal film "Down By Law" three prisoners, in a momentary lapse of reason speaking in Babylonian tongues, form a bond over repeating the phrase "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!". Ice cream, its figure in advertising and screaming children running to gather around the ice cream truck produce a sense of community, all to a recognizable dinky tune. In Taiwan, this moment is reproduced in the management of waste: rather than the indiscriminate beep-beep hidden by the morning fog, Taiwanese garbage trucks ring with beautiful simple melodies, letting people know it is time to gather and dispose of their communal waste. Meanwhile, as internet platforms wage war over dominance of the access portal, we find ourselves as prisoners stuck conversing from bubbles, doomscrolling in the prison of internet noise - down by law. We all scream for ice cream! explores the ice-cream model of Taiwanese waste management and the ethereal apparition of community amidst the access portal war. As an audiovisual installation, it combines found social media footage, waste and prison material to communicate the proposed narrative. https://nielsgercama.com/weallscreamforicecream