Victoria Estok

Cachos Confessions

This project was made in collaboration with Carolina Montalvo and Blake McDowell. Using AEC grant money and the consultation of taxidermist David Swenderman we were able to take a handful of bull horns, corkboard, maxmsp, and a collection of  audio confessions and make an interactive sound installation. Cachos Confessions allowed participants to listen to a confession through one of the bull horns only after they made one. Confessions come with a price!

This BullHorn (Cachos) Confessionary was our first attempt at exploring fidelity and communication within sexual relationships. On a recent trip to Ecuador, Carolina came across this strange shack in the middle of nowhere that had hundreds of bullhorns attached to the outside with men’s names written on them. Apparently this shack was a club for men would had been cachudos. In the Latin community Bullhorns (Cachos) are a cultural symbol that denotes cheating … and if you have been Cachudos or bull horned it is seen as a strike against your integrity. Over drinks one night, we got to talking about relationships and we thought it would be fun to try to make an installation and see if we could get people to participate in our version of a cachos confessionary.

We had our doubts but this is how it worked:  Upon entering the confessionary you would strike a bell. This would then register a 1000hz signal in MaxMsp. Immediately after striking the bell your confession would be recorded by the patch. When you finished spilling your guts you would strike the bell again and this would  then enable you to hear a previous confession. Playback was a random shuffle of recorded confessions making the testimonies function more like a non-linear story. Participants were hesitant at first to open up but in the end (and this could have something to do with the liquor at the show) it seemed to be a somewhat cathartic experience for people.