Murmur Study – Christopher Baker

This installation explores the phenomenon of micro-blogging. The piece collects tweets and Facebook updates in real-time and continuously prints them out, creating an accumulated pile of the short messages people thought interesting enough to share on the internet. Using Processing and Arduino-controlled printers, Murmur Study is an elegant and physical reminder of the massive amount of information available on the web, while simultaneously exposing the narcissistic and social nature of humans. The piece is simple yet very effective. I think Baker could take if farther, for example by printing out every single Facebook status and tweets from all over the world, having printers on every wall of the room, and letting the paper flood the entire room.

Virtual Gravity – Silke Hilsing

In this interactive piece, Silke Hilsing tries to determine the physical weight of electronic data. This weight is not determined by the amount of data or literally what the actual data weighs, but is instead determined by its calculated importance. Weight is correlated to internet presence: how much the word is searched on search engines, etc… Hilsing created a sort of electronic balance, where participants can select different words and see which one is heavier (i.e. is more socially relevant). While the concept is really interesting, I feel like its execution is not quite up to par. I feel like the reaction it provides isn’t quite visceral enough, maybe because the medium itself still feels too electronic and Hilsing hasn’t quite fully translated the data into a more tangible, physical format.

Quintetto – Quiet Ensemble

A series of five tanks, each with a goldfish, emits sounds that are correlated to the position of the fish in the tank. This simple  artwork is an engaging doorway into a different mode of perception. An interesting aspect of the piece is the mix of nature and technology, where organic bodies and electronic bodies collaborate unconciously. I like how the technology was used as a medium to further explore a relatively mundane, natural occurrence and elevates it to an artwork.