Statemodulator – Köln 1999, 500 x 500 x 200 cm
Interactive Installation, holograms, videoloops, Akai sampler,
theremins, midi converters, steam machine, moving detectors
Interaktive Installation, Hologramme, Video Loops, Akai Sampler,
Theremine, Midi Converter, Nebelmaschine, Bewegungsmelder
State Modulator was realized for the exhibition “Stein der Weisen” (The Philosopher’s Stone) in Fall, 2000, in the former Parliment House in Bonn. This event was organized by the German Research Center, Jülich for the “Year of Physics” of the Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft.
Interactive object: 6 Theremin modules, “Director” application, computer, 6 monitors, 6 channel audio, 6 holograms, triggered fog machine. “A huge black donut on thin legs; a UFO with a plan to start.” “What is this for a machine?” “There’s something inside!” A big, black ring made of black plastic expels strange sounds and fog. Six portholes lure the visitors to look inside. The movements of the visitors are interpreted by 6 sensor areas, midi-directing theremin modules which control the events inside the tube. Sound samples from various ethnic genesis, hunting , and funeral rituals move visual samples of nanospace. “All bodies are made of atoms – little particles which contantly move, which attract eachother over short distances, but which repel when they come too close to one other.” R.Feynman, in M.I. Kaganow: Basics of solid state physics, 1994. If a visitor comes close to one of the portholes, he can scroll through the sound samples by moving his head or hands. When he slows down his movements, he can play in a more sophisticated manner with those strange sounds. Looking inside a window, the space situation within remains unclear. A ring of light seems to fly through the center of the ring. Six holograms behind the windows are used to create this effect. The video images seem to stream along this ring of light. They are mirrored from six monitors beneath the plastic tube into the visual area behind the windows. If all six windows are occupied by visitors, or if a single visitor runs very fast around the object, activating all windows, the State Modulator becomes very loud. The picture and sound material begins to strobe and theatrically lit smoke comes out of the machine. The visitors startle back; “Is the machine broken?” Pictures from the edge of the visible. Crystalline systems. Ornamental systems. Silicon connections, silicates. Fractals in microstructures. Plankton, corals, algae. Analogies. Symetries. Electronic tools visualize and interpret. The border between model and experiment, simulation and empiric research is fluid. And: the images created by this process are of disturbing beauty. Thank God! Ritual and scientific experiment, how are they related to one another? In conversations with scientists from Jülich, we agreed that the success of their research projects depends not only on rational aspects. The inner dynamics of institutional hierarchies also direct the research results. State Modulator is about these collective, interhuman aspects of scientific experimentation. New hierarchical structures constantly appear via the collective reception of the State Modulator . Curiosity, predjudices, frustration due to lack of education, play passion, pride of detailed knowledge, etc. – these are the more hidden interactive factors of the object State Modulator.