Wovan Presents (images above and below) is the third of three posts on works (the first post is Screen Threshold and the second is Moody Mushroom Floor) which are related with regards to how they transmit / emit information to connected devices to form a uni-directional network (feedback is through another means or not at all in this case). Simultaneously this work also relates to the posts I wrote recently on lines (Oneline.com and Liners). All three works employ the idea of lines / connection / seperation / distance in differing ways. Here two types of lines are employed and connected; lines of news from news websites (no doubt this would be RSS if created today), events which occur in the ‘real’ (outside the internet) and are diffused in the ‘virtual’ (the website), these are then used to create lines of material with sewn text, ribbons, which accumulate in the space of the installation.

Wovan Presents consists of a sewing machine connected to the internet which:

sews text onto black ribbon which circumferences a room. The word “war” is sought out by a computer from various internet news provider’s information. Paragraphs containing the word “war” are then read by the computer which controls the sewing machine which then sews the text. A motor pulls the ribbon around the room until it ends in a heap.

Similar to the previous two works (noted above), Wovan Presents employes light diodes (receiving diodes not LEDS) attached to a computer monitor which trigger hardware interfaces allowing them to network with other devices (as in the images above). This is a uni-directional network which provides no feedback through the interface itself and in this particular example no feedback is required within the installation. There is a demonstration of the installation software here which shows how the text from the internet is converted into light signals / codes on screen to trigger / control the sewing machine.

Work originally seen as part of net_condition’s publication net_condition: art and global media.