In the beginning
was the word.
High
Density is
the first of Artnodes investigations of interaction versus art in the digital
media. This investigation concentrates on the function of the search engine
and the conditions of navigating on the internet. The search engine is the catalyst
in a game between the empty work and the work full of content.
High
Density is a collection of artworks, interviews, and projects.
They are interlinked and lead to indirect discussions. The project is named
after the old floppy diskette, where "High
Density" meant the capacity to compress and distribute huge
amounts of information. Likewise the project plays on the way search engines
index and give access to information. It is through search engines that the
enormous mass of information on the net is made available to the user. Responding
to the entered search word, the engine creates lists of content. But how can
you search and get access to the knowledge potential? What happens in the meeting
between a user possessing certain qualifications and an engine with a big potential
knowledge that is accessible only by relevant search words?
Entering High
Density the art-user is confronted with a minimal, movable and
flexible interface. A search engine demanding an input to generate an output.
Not until the user enters a word, parts of the art work is made visible. It
unfolds through words like "user", "sex", "non-linear",
"cool" or "intimacy", and the user can create his own hypertextual
way though the material.
Often the engine will respond with an error message: No match! These erroneous
searches make an important part of the work. They are listed like other search
results so that other users erroneous searches are made visible in a "Top
ten list" and thereby put attention to the relation between access and
refusal.
As a "Gesamtwerk" High
Density is created in collaboration between a group of artists,
programmers and designers. Everybody involved in the network is free to upload
new projects and link them to existing projects: High Density is an open work
that will continue to grow and transform.
Contributors.
Artnode: Kim Borreby, Niels Bonde, Mogens Jacobsen, Martin Pingel, Nikolaj Recke,
Jesper Nymark og Morten Schjødt.
Oncotype: Mattias Bodlund, Morten Westermann, Marianne Husfeldt og Morten Schjødt.
Mikael Thorsen has contributed with the work "Pure Code Project".