more&more (image above of the performance, image below of the software) is a performance by Hans W. Koch for an infinite number of laptops, playing without a pa. The performance uses software built in max/msp which progressively crashes the computer it resides on and in so doing creates a unique performance.

in failing, the machines produce sounds, impossible to obtain with mere software. each participant has the same program installed on his machine, which progressively overloads it: new windows are created in random positions and colours, each representing a simple fm-synthesizer. after a while, the computers start choking, dropping and/or distorting sound, the window creation stumbles. when the computers produce almost no sound anymore, the piece terminates by all participants purposely crashing the software…each window contains a synthesizer, represented by the shape of an envelope and producing a random fm-sound. at first, creation of windows and sound is synchronized. after a while, the computers start choking, first the beat gets irregular, then sound starts dropping and/or distorting, the creation of window stumbles. the longer the process runs, the more the computers become silent, resorting to emitting random pops and clicks once in a while, stuttering in visuals, trying to catch up with an impossible task.

Originally seen at VVork

Shiftspace is a firefox extension which it’s makers call:

An Open Source layer above any webpage

It deserves mention here amongst the last few posts about Art Browsers as it gives users the potential to intervene, modify and subvert existing websites within the spaces used by all Shiftspace users, essentially mashing up content. So it’s a platform which promotes mashups but what’s interesting is that it does not preference any particular type of content such as images and it does not lock the content in as so many of these so called platforms do which are made in Flash or something else which instantly renders them useless.

Shiftspace has already got a lot of attention from artists working in new media with it’s honorory mention in the Prix Ars Electronica in 2006 and Turbulence commissioned artworks in 2007.

Inside Gecko (image above, two example videos below) is a Processing visualisation of how Gecko constructs pages in the browser as it receives them from the internet. Created by Satoshi Ueyama, the purpose of this work is not art as such but does do two interesting things. The work functions as an interesting way of visualising HTML page form which is largely overlooked because of it’s content. By doing this it creates connections with abstract painters such as Piet Mondrian, Peter Halley and so on who also look at grid like form structures. The work also creates an automated way of doing this by subverting information intended for a browser, this closes allies it with many art browsers but also net.art such as Chris Ashley’s HTML paintings, Peter Baldes animated gif works etc. which subvert the arrangement of the content.

Above reflow process of mozilla.org.

Above reflow process of wikipedia.org.

Originally seen at Computerlove.

Blogviz, not an online art work or art work online, is a visualisation / mapping tool for the blogosphere (I hate that phrase) which seems to be a proof of concept more than anything else for a thesis. It is a:

flash driven visualization model for mapping the transmission and internal structure of top links across the blogosphere. It explores the idea of meme propagation by assuming a parallel with the spreading of most cited URLs in daily weblog entries.

Blogviz is currently a portrait of blogosphere’s topic activity during the first 64 days of 2005. Nevertheless, the model was developed to easily incorporate different timeframes. Blogviz will continue to expand in the future, to the possible point of including real-time data.

Now I’m a big believer in mapping as a means to explaining or understanding (depending on your point of view) information and I’ve written about many types of mapping here but when it comes to mapping the entirety of the internet or the blogosphere which is now immensely large I have serious doubts as to the success this can have in creating an overall view. It usually amounts to Borges idea of a map that starts to have so much detail it becomes as large as the territory it maps (some info here on that). New media should be able to solve this issue as it can warp / distort / create / reinvent time and space but I’ve yet to see a solution which does this elegantly.

Some interesting visual, static and non-interactive, work that came through VVork a few days ago was the work of Therese Stowell. As soon as you arrive on Therese’s site you get a sense that visually her work bears some relation to connections / associations between things and the use of diagrams to represent that. She says:

My work involves constructing systems of meaning through the presentation of text, often using the information presentation tools of science and business. These systems frequently take the form of arrowed diagrams which connect words or sentences to create networks of explanation.

It’s the “networks of explanation” which I particularly like here, it highlights an aspect of networks we rarely think about, networks as means of understanding a topic and it’s interconnected ideas / concepts / beliefs.

All of the website is worth a look however make sure to have a look at the Consummation Series, Diagram #4 (image top), Diagram #5, Diagram #6 (image above), All My Love and About Belief (images below). Detailed images of the works are available on the website.

Originally seen at VVork