zgodlocator
Catalogue text about Herwig Weiser's "zgodlocator," published in "The Art of the Accident," 1998.
1. Decoupling materials from their industrial processing, usage and recycling. (analogue-digital-analogue-transform)
2. Computer-based movement control of a system consisting of granules (hardware sands) and sauces (reactive substances): impulse magnetism, electricity, short circuit. (paradise)
3. Sound sampling of gridded hardware assemblages and their transformations. (live)
4. An installation with a variable configuration of spatial segments: interaction, programming, feedback.
Disused computer hardware is discarded and sorted (cases, hard drives, cabling, processors, etc.) for recycling processes. Consequently, it is granulated and mechanically separated according to material properties. In the ZGODLOCATOR project, these hardware sands are treated chemically and magnetically and are thus conditioned to react in specific ways. These aggregations are placed into and between different types of frames, i.e. modular, combinable and adaptable spatial segments. Testbeds for the divine creator-machine on return to its hardware nature.
Grids of electro-magnetic systems underneath these frames trigger patterned transformations of the 'granular landscapes', varying according to the type and the composition of the granules. A phylum machine: matter and energy thrown into accidental form. The physical and chemical forces of the system externally stimulate the materials to take on spontaneous energetic states. They transform the granules into singular and momentuous sculptural accumulations. Through holes and across thresholds, the activated granules are able to ondulate between and inside the parted/connected spatial frame constructions.
Walking among the frames that are placed close to the ground. The control devices use data entry via a pre-programmed computer, a manual control panel, and the feedback of sound data. Industrial security norms apply. Granular landscapes arranged by sound: the computer trans-substantiating the sound into patterns, from one frame to another, sound short-circuiting the frames. A trigger panel enables selecting and mixing pattern eventualities and navigating them over and against the patterns initiated by the computer-connected, feedback-based 'hardware-sounds'. In the unpredictable interaction of pattern vs. pattern, the magnet system itself will react indifferently. Instabilities are created in between the energy streams as they absorb electricity and magnetism and as patterns are overlaying each other.
The mixtures react with discontinuous re-structurations to non-linear magnetic field and flow transformation, triggered by impulse magnets and electrical currents. In a separate frame, magnetic fluids (ferrofluid) are mixed with different types of transparent oil layers, each with different densities and chemical features. In every layer, melted hardware is mixed with the magnetic liquid and hardware components. Two bass loudspeakers are connected by a U-pipe and placed inside this 'sauce-frame'. Modulating the sound frequencies creates waves and counter-waves in the sauce-hardware-layer assemblage.
The two main processes active in the spatial segments are short impulses or shocks (magnetic, electrical) and variable flows (streams, vibrations). They generate a context of motion and transformation that propels external/internal influences into self-consuming assemblages of force-effects.
In co-operation with Bob O' Kane (Otherspace), Albert Bleckmann (electronics and programming), Sandeep Mehta (Hardware re-melt), Paper Blattmacher (sub-membrane modulation).
1998 V2_
