limited limitlessness. doc
limited limitlessness at Lab for Electronic Arts and Performance July 2012
Following the utopic high of the nascent cyber age in the 1990s, came a natural slump in the emotional well-being of the subjects of the digital era. The tireless increases in speed, efficiency, ever sleeker interfaces and ever smaller devices, the spoilt children of this epoch no longer needed to economise with time and memory, as their mothers and fathers did. Plentiful memory space, processor speed, not to mention the „information“ itself which is stored, duplicated, re-distributed via innumerous communication paths creates a vast horizon of possibilities which we now have at our finger tips. Yet instead of inducing the elation expected at these bountiful resources, it seems to the contrary to often stifle in its unendlessness. Aware of the technological superiority of their computer companions, humans have begun to notice an unerring tendency, a savvy post-humanism which seeks to recompensate lost essences by favouring the indiscrete over the discrete. At the same time, the hypocrisy is clear as the everyday dependence on our technological devices increases, a love-hate man-machine relationship. Such is the state of digital existentialism which contributes heavily to today‘s first world anxieties. Techno-pornographic media arts accentuate this simultaneous fascination and disgust which presents itself as difficult to avoid. The exhibition „Limited Limitlessness - New findings in primitive digital art“ aims to expose these internal contradictions as well as embrace that which technology cannot or does not do. Amidst the practice of sterile media art, we find ourselves both as critical recipients and as propagators thereof. The works of the exhibition explore aspects of the artists‘ own primitive urges within computer-based art.
Exhibiting Artists AEAEAEAE & Stian Korntved Ruud Yair Elazar Glotman & Waris Klampfer Annie Goh Sascha Hanse Petja Ivanova Karin Lustenberger Tobias Purfürst Pierce Warnecke & Nicolas Lefort Performances by Tobias Purfürst Karin Lustenberger Yair Elazar Glotman Owen Roberts Constantin Engelmann
http://www.berlinartlink.com/2012/07/30/theheart-of-the-machine-and-the-mechanicalheart/
Torsion Encoder by AEAEAEAE & Stian Korntved Ruud 2012
The torsion encoder is a digital interface designed to render digits into tension. The device converts digital data into torsional force. A computer-controlled motor applies this force to a mounted piece of wood (or optionally other objects). A conversion algorithm animates the engine based on a given data-set or source. The force applied gets stored in the material stress of the mounted object. The material stress further generates an ambient tension in the surrounding space, it thereby works beyond the spectrum of conventional means of digital representation. A sensation of risk or danger emergence from the material tension. The once abstracted, compressed or synthesized sequential information regains or becomes a materiality. It is no longer stored in the pure clarity of numerical data, it’s converted into the the diffuse code of torsional representation. http://www.aeaeaeae.com/ http://www.stiankorntvedruud.com/
A physical carrier of information »Information is not a disembodied abstract entity; it is always tied to a physical representation.« — Rolf Landauer, 1996 in »The Physical Nature of Information«
Sascha Hanse *1987, Berlin — www.saschahanse.com A first investigation into conservative logic circuits. Running on the microcontroller is a simulation of a simple billiard-ball computer, using two billiard balls to implement a reversible computer based on newtonian dynamics, where the motion or path of billiard balls is used to implement logic gates. Each disk/motor is driven by the motion of one billiard ball. References: Ladyman, James and Presnell, Stuart and Short, Anthony J. and Groisman, Berry (2006) „The Connection between Logical and Thermodynamic Irreversibility.“ [Preprint] R. Landauer, „Irreversibility and heat generation in the computing process“, IBM J. Res. Develop., pp. 183-191, July 1961 Bennett, C. H. (1987) „Demons, Engines and the Second Law“, Scientific American, November, pp108-116 Bennett, C. H. (1982) „The Thermodynamics of Computation -- A Review,“ International Journal of Theoretical Physics, vol. 21, no. 12, pp. 905-940 Maroney, O. J. E. (2009) „Information Processing and Thermodynamic Entropy“ The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Autumn 2009 Edition) Fredkin, Edward; Toffoli, Tommaso (1982), „Conservative logic“, International Journal of Theoretical Physics 21 (3-4): 219–253, W. H. Zurek (1989), „Thermodynamic cost of computation, algorithmic complexity, and the information metric“, Nature 341, 119-124 Shizume, Kousuke (1995), „Heat generation required by information erasure“, Phys. Rev. E, 34953499 Zenil, Hector (2012), „Introducing the Computable Universe“, arXiv:1206.0376v1
Hylozoistic research into residual ghosts contained in particles recuperated from dead places. “By collecting and freezing found debris from a destroyed place, I hope to conserve a remnant memory of newly inexistent locations. Like certain animistic beliefs in which a soul can be absorbed by ingesting a part of its physical embodiment, I anticipate that this simple process of cryogenic quasi-conservation and para-purification will result in a liquid containing distilled memories of forgotten places. Pierce Warnecke’s work stems from his interest in the effects of time on matter: modification, deterioration and disappearance. Whether focus is on the purity of digital forms or the chaotic grit of natural objects, large scales of time and space or microscopic detail, the goal of his work is to readapt existing materials into a parallel context where their signified meanings, symbols and cultural connections have become residual ghosts. Pierce is currently a MeisterschĂźler at UdK Berlin under Alberto de Campo. http://piercewarnecke.com/
Interpretive Panpsychism (Experminent #1) by Pierce Warnecke with Nicolas Lefort 2012
Electromagnetic Microcosm by Annie Goh
The effects of our electromagnetic environments on the human body are far from exhaustively researched yet they exist omnipresently, with particular intensity in cities. Aside from uses in telecommunication via AM/FM radio, mobile phones, wireless internet, radar etc, experimental theories about electromagnetism range from ELF (extremely low frequency) emissions instigated by governments for controlling weather and human mood, to postulations about the human consciousness itself as an electromagnetic field (McFadden 2002). In this ambiguous context, electromagnetic
microcosm is a device which senses data in real-time from its electromagnetic surroundings. Data is displayed in two different ways; firstly the fields (in this version in the ranges of 50/60Hz and 0.1-2.5GHz) are represented dynamically using electromagnets and iron filings on a surface, secondly the signal is made audible and the surface with iron filings is subjected to the motion of sound vibrations of the electromagnetic environment. Electromagnetic and mechanical forces both act on the iron filings, experimentally affording new insights into our electromagneticintensive, urban surroundings.
Annie Goh was born in Birmingham, UK and moved to Berlin in 2008. Her works include installations, writings, compositions and performances dealing with themes including aural narcissism, sonic fiction, psycho-acoustic phenomena, fringe-belief systems and media illnesses such as picnolepsy. She completed her MA in Sound Studies at the University of Arts Berlin in 2010 on „Sonic Fiction“ and and is currently undertaking a one-year artistic research project on VilĂŠm Flusser and sound media.
B.O.M. (detail) by Petja Ivnova 2012
Petja Ivanova was born in Bulgaria and lives/ works in Berlin. Her work includes photography, video, kinetic sculptures, sound objects and art with nature - emerging out of a parallel dimension where things have not gone that utterly wrong. The work ‚B.O.M.‘ proposes an artifact of a possible machine culture in the days when artificial intelligence will finally have exceeded the human capacities. www.petjaivanova.com www.adrianelombardi.tumblr.com
Yair Elazar Glotman - A.K.A Mephisto Wunderbar - Born on 1987 is a musician and sound artist living and studying in the art and media program of the Universit채t der K체nste Berlin focusing on sound installations and sound sculptures. Born in Tel Aviv, he previously studied classical and jazz double-bass at the Jerusalem music academy and in the classical department at the Universit채t der K체nste Berlin. He also took part in courses and performances within the KlangZeitOrt Institute for New Music Beriln (electroacoustic composition and electronically processed improvisations). Glotman performed an original composition at the next_generation 4.0 festival for electroacoustic music in ZKM (Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe). One of his sound sculptures was presented at the Academy of Music Hanns Eisler Berlin. A return to the noisy way of making noise. The sculpture plainly wears its means of percussion and production; the instrument hangs physically there, heavy. The performer is weighed down by the sound-producing objects, which move around the room, moving the audience around them. An unpredictable, only partly controlled soundscape fills the room: as the performer heavily drags it around the sound becomes tangible, by the old-fashioned way of seeing it being made.
The I‘ve seen it all procession by Yair Glotman and Waris KLampfer
Tobias PurfĂźrst *1983 generates and works with sound. Particulate Matter is a site specific piece with real time influence by the passing traffic and other unforeseen sounds. Cars and pedestriants become unknowingly performers, the street their stage and the front window a big screen, while the musical setting will bend and remix their ‚acoustic behavior‘.
Karin Lustenberger 62 Views for Ears Field records mixed with generated data from planet and moons: played by magnet sensors
Saturns Mehrkanal-Video-Sound-Installation
Technoisiert und krafts physikalisch fungierenden Bewegungsstrukturen umkreisen Kameras den Knotenpunkt Alexanderplatz und setzen so den Fokus auf die subjektive Sichtweise, wie sie in Systemtheorien ihn behauptet wird, also der
permanent konstruierten Sicht des Einzelnen auf seine Wahrnehmung – eine psychogeografische Neuverwirrung vor Ort. Karin Lustenberger ist 1980 in Willisau, Schweiz, geboren und lebt heute in Berlin und Luzern. Sie
arbeitet elektronisch und bewegt mit Sound, Video und Performance. www.karinlustenberger.ch
Constantin Engelmann with ATMegaGeil
Owen Roberts performing at the finissage all musical performances to be heard on https://soundcloud.com/leap-berlin/sets/limited-limitlessness