R111 1999

THIS WORLD IS FLAT AND HAS AN END

the transformation from digital information to analog matter.

1666, at the age of 20, gottfried leibniz published the book "dissertatio de arte combinatoria". in this work he aimed to reduce all reasoning and discovery to a combination of basic elements such as numbers, letters, sounds and colors. he then discovered the binary system, the foundation of the digital universe.

1999, a lump of coal is burned every time a book is ordered online. it takes about 1 pound of coal to create, package, store and move 2 megabytes of data, which is the equivalent of downloading 2 minutes of music from the internet. futurists have been promising us information highways, not unit trains loaded with coal. fiber-optic cables, not 600-kilovolt power lines. we're going to get both.

energy-potentials are cannibalized off the internet and from the local movement of spectators in the physical space of R111. these energies are then transformed into various states of matter – both physical and virtual – and presented by the installation with the help of several modules. new media actual tendencies are virtualizing reality. R111 on the opposite materializes virtuality: choreographing particles of matter as though they were pixels.

visitors can participate and feel how energies are generated and transformed as different phenomena ranging from the virtual worlds to actual transformations of material, influencing each other. the energies of the material world that we maintain and realize as such are transferred into the information space and networks, on which today's information society is centered. in this world where every existing fact can be information-processed, how can we sense the energies, such as intellectual, mental, and economic power, loaded into information?

physical interfaces

sonic floor: the sonic floor is the main local interface. spectators can walk on top of the sonic floor. it consists out of a subwoofer-matrix that transmits energy back to the spectator through vibrational forces induced by infrasonic sound-waves. any spectator moving on the sonic floor is tracked by a motion-tracking-camera and therefore creating energy through movement for the system. as the spectator moves, he leaves traces on a liquid surface projected onto the sonic floor.

liquid module: the liquid module consists out of a platform that holds silicon oil. the platform itself is attached to audio-speakers in a way that the liquid gets into motion triggered by sounds coming through the speakers. with this setup it is possible to visualize the system's energies with the help of liquid media. the liquid surface is then projected to the wall via an overhead unit.

magnetic module: the magnetic module consists out of a matrix of magnets under a metallic platform. on the platform is a collection of different sized granular media such as steel balls. with this setup, we can create structures that visualize the system's directional energy with the reorganization of granular media.

network sensors: web cannibal, virtual motion tracker & semantic vectors: R111 has an "eye" into the internet: a web cannibal that creates IP-numbers inside its IP-factory and checks the content of websites found in such a manner. these results are then transformed and categorized into energy potentials based on semantic vector analysis. via the internet, spectators have the possibility to contribute more energy into R111 using the virtual motion-tracker-interface on the R111 webpage. a touch-screen showing the virtual motion tracker is also situated in the exhibition space.

the virtual world of R111 is a representation of the collective brain of the system. the incoming energy-potentials are visualized as an ever burning interactive fire in IP-coordinate space centered around 0.0.0.0, the absolute zero of the IP-universe.

There is a code for the end of this world.
There is a world for the end of this code.
THIS WORLD IS ROUND AND HAS NO END.

the supreme particles consider R111 to be the climax of their work in the domain of fossil digital art, marking their transition into the plexus of the infossil. shortly after, as predicted by the group in their last japanese interview june 2001, death was reintroduced to western society with the velocity of the airplanes hitting 911. R111 marks their last work after 10 years of generation and led to their digital declaration and the following split-up of their digital operations.

Inspired by Dig more Coal - a visionary article by Peter W. Huber 1999

Produced by Söke Dinkla, Connected Cities 1999, Richard Castelli, Epidemic,
Benoit Dave, P.A.S.S. Frameries

Curated by Kazunao Abe & Yukiko Shikata For Canon Artlab Prospect 5 2001
Yukiharu Mizuuchi, Shinichi Tenno, Hiroyuki Kimura, Shun'Ichi Tamai, Shinko Sugiyama, Yoshinori Shindo, Hirokazu Akisada, Hiromi Bessho, Tomoyuki Isonuma, Hironori Goto

With the help of Steffen Ruyl Cramer, Marc Kaiser, Lars Werbeck, Gerhard Stäbler, Stefan Hofmann, Armin Purkrabek, Timo Piatkowski, Gideon May, Anne Niemetz, Karl Von Den Linden, Steffen Wolf, Katharina Gsöllpointner, Bec Bonn, Maison Des Arts Creteil, Oli Boeg

Produced by Peter Weibel and Christiane Riedel for the ZKM Karlsruhe 2006
Gisbert Laaber, Peter Gather, Manuel Weber