X=X+1 (INCREmental)
"X=X+1" (INCREmental)" (1999) is an endless film and a computer-based video installation by Eike.
X=X+1" (INCREmental)
X=X+1 (INCREmental) is both an endless film and a computer-based, continously evolving installation. It shows a screen with a human head that is counting to infinity. INCREmental is a metaphor for computer art, because the piece could not have been realized in any other medium. At the same time, the installation reflects on the infinite progression of time.
Description from Machine Times
X=X+1 (INCREmental) is both an endless film and a computer-based, continously evolving installation. It shows a screen with a human head that is counting to infinity. INCREmental is a metaphor for computer art, because the piece could not have been realized in any other medium. At the same time, the installation reflects on the infinite progression of time: 'In 1994, I produced my first computer piece, "Landing Place". With this first work, the possibilities for "endlessness" that the computer possesses and the notion that it can harbour an art piece that transforms itself constantly, came to fascinate me. I think about virtual space in the same way I think about real space. I'm interested in the properties, the parameters, the structure and how virtual space influences the viewer's perception. The term "virtual space" is actually nothing new. It has always existed in the arts, in other forms, of course. An example would be the "space" in which a fairytale takes place: This is a space that we cannot enter because of the physical nature of our bodies, but which we can create and influence, in terms of what happens there, and into which we can look.' (Eike in conversation with Zsolt Kozma, April 2000)
INCREmental constructs the passing of time as such a virtual space. The virtual character in the installation counts on and on, without ever stopping, without hesitation and without making a mistake. From one exhibition to the next, the work accumulates the figures that have been counted and vocalises continuously growing numbers. Using a human head and the human voice, INCREmental creates a counting machine that does not follow the cyclical nature of a clock - like for instance in the telephone service for time-keeping, which repeats the same cycle every day. The installation presents an audio-visual clock that moves forward along the irreversible arrow of time.
Credits
EIKE 1999 (www.sztaki.hu/providers/eike) Lingo scripting by briang (www.briang.dabsol.co.uk) Commissioned by Hull Time Based Arts (www.timebase.org) Supported by the C3 Foundation Budapest (www.c3.hu).
