Nostalgia for a Myth is a kinetic sound sculpture designed to be set on the edge of a river. It is a combination of a water mill and a variation of a Polyphon – an automatic music box disc produced in Leipzig in the late 19th century. The flow of the river determines the rate at which it performs popular nostalgic songs, while also creating its own light show. This is partly rooted in Robin Moody’s own nostalgic interest in clever mechanical devices from the past, but even more so in current popular movements of nostalgia for a simpler time that did not actually happen.
For Moody, modern concepts of “organic food” and “alternative medicine” comprise a certain nostalgia which is largely manifested in food fears and obsessions about naturalness, chemical phobias and mistrust of medicine. While these may seem mere eccentricities, they have a rejection of knowledge at their core. These fetishes, being anti-science and technology, are ironically perpetuated by the fast sharing of (mis)information that technology has allowed.

mixed media installation

Grant: December 2014–February 2015, Werkleitz (DE)