It is hypothesised that dynamic systems with feedback can experience an adaptation to the Edge of Chaos. This term is used to denote a transitional space between order and disorder, region of bounded instability that engenders constant dynamic interplay between the opposing poles. This work aims at creating a framework for such phenomena to occur and for audience to enter this realm and add or subtract from it. Doing precisely that, it seeks to embody the specificity of the contemporary momentum – the rhizomatic now.
Rhizome is a botanical term used to describe the system of roots of various plants and fungi. Its specificity is horizontal growth, great complexity, multitude of nodes and interconnectedness. This artwork utilises multichannel routed feedback as a metaphor for the flow of information that has become rhiozmatic. It presents signal whose origin and destination is not clear, where linear causality looses its explanatory and predictive potential, and where everything is interconnected to the point when the whole information system becomes a huge organic infrastructure impossible to decode.
One may enter the system and add to it or substract from it but without ever knowing the exact result of their actions. The system encompasses incoming signals, reiterates them and functions self-sufficiently as a hyperobject outside human scope.
Videos and pictures document the second itteration of the work. This took place in Spetember 2022 in Orthodox Synagogue, Kosice, Slovakia. It’s first presentation was in 2021 in Katowice, Poland within the programme of Biuro Dzwieku in Sala Otwarta of Academy of Fine Arts of Katowice. I spent close to 5 months there as part of a Visegrad Residency and recieved all the assistance necessary (Piotr, Pawel, dzienki!) to design construct and programme the whole installation from zero to its final shape. The work was supported by Slovak Arts Council.
If you’re still here, I’ve got some more content for you! >) The installation is best experience in person since the whole space resonates with sounds and it lights up and dims accordingly. The second best bet would be watching a video with a sound on decent speakers. Here are two of them – one static impression of how it was to experience the work from the entrance doors. The other cuts through various fly over views of the work. Enjoy!