"Two Women" consisted of one computer station, two light boxes (58.4 x 60.3 x 20.3 cm), and two boxes (95.25 x 71.1 x 30.5 cm) each with three images revolving in response either to a timing device located in the computer or to user key-press at the keyboard. Also, the two light boxes could be turned on and off from the keyboard. The images in the light boxes and revolving units were chosen from key moments in the lives of the two women whose biographies form the basis of "Two Women".
The work places side by side the lives of two women of different ages and socio-economic backgrounds. Sara, in her 60's, classical musician, graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, born in the American South, into a family with a history of college educated women. And Tammy, a single mother, born in rural Manitoba, working as a waitress in the local cafe, in her 30's, and a part-time student at a Community College.
The project was created over a period of two years. It began with a series of voice-only taped autobiographical interviews with each woman, which were later transcribed. As well, they provided many family photographs. These form the basis for the computer component of "Two Women".
"Two Women" was started in 1991 and before multimedia software was readily available. An experienced programmer, I created my own multimedia interface on top of Microsoft's DOS operating system. There was a text mode, which consisted of the transcribed biographies, with an image window in the upper right quadrant. Users could switch between text and image, and could navigate between images and text pages. From the image window the user could switch to image mode, i.e open the image full screen and manipulate images in various ways, from zooming in to high resolution to image rotation. Of course, at the time, all of this was new and exciting. But the fluidity and malleability of images, their ultimate lack of edges, the uncertainty of where they begin and end, reflected my sense of our lives. And the light boxes that could turn off and on, and the boxes with their revolving image, all reinforced this sense of things.