Flip books from the hidden corners of the Internet / The Computer as seen at the end of the human age
Summary
A book, Installation and a workshop. A projects about making flip books in relation to algorithms, human creation and production.
Supported by
Konstnärsnämnden
Description of project
The project is both an artist work and a presentation at the conference Parse Human. Below you can see our abstract from PARSE. During the PARSE conference the books and an installation was exhibited. The books has also been sold/shown at modern museum, Stockholms Art bookfair etc.
The artwork are ongoing performance/workshop - In januari it will be a workshop for phd-students in a course in media archaeology/ecology (Linköpings University)
Parse Abstract text:
The project is based on algorithms in relation to human creation and production. We start with Marx’s theories about labour in relation to the machine. In Grundrisse, we find Marx’s frequently quoted reflection on the machine, where he argues that the machine ‘is itself the virtuoso, with a soul of its own. In the industrial epoch technology had consisted of machines that people were obliged to use as part of their work. Machines were progressive in the sense that they enhanced productive efficiency, but few people were keen to work with one in fear of alienation. Within art production, the dream was the automata, later early algorithmic experiments with poetry, drawing machines, holograms and today AI– the machine as the creator of art. This machine history is part of our current media archaeology. We therefore seek to investigate today’s discussions of AI with attempts to create AI art. In a time of capitalist consumption, post-industrialism and exhaustion of natural resources, we need to sheds light on our relation to technology and mechanical art in order to regain and re-imagine our relationship with the machine.
In connection with the presentation, a computer will during the time of the conference download online videos. In real time, short sequences are captured from live cams, accidentally streams or clips of everyday life. The algorithm finds the clips, converts them into pictures and puts them together into a book format. They are then printed and bound into flicker books. As everything is automated, hundreds of books can be created and bound each day of the conference. A library of what happened around the world November 13-15. This experimental workshop will be running as part of the conference and be interconnected to our theoretical presentation.
Art work presentation text:
Flip books from the hidden corners of the Internet
I'm looking for movies on Youtube with few or no visitors, webcams at eventless times. In most cases, I am the only visitor. Sometimes the filmmaker does not even know that the movie was uploaded, an incorrect button press. Movies that sometimes are there for a short while, disappear. Webcams from tourist resorts off season, construction sites, municipal webcams that monitor traffic or someone trying their new mobile phone.
A flashing traffic light from a webcam somewhere in Colorado, recorded 03.45.15-03.45.35
A birthday party in Sarajevo, 2 visitors 23.16.15-23.16.35
A surveillance camera outside a strip club in Thailand, 1 visitor 13.16.15-13.16.35
A gull flying past a camera in Denmark 0 visitors 13.16.15-13.16.35
A flagpole on a parking lot in Hamburg, 0 visitors 17.15.25-17.15.55
I wrote a program that recorded the movies and transferred them into pictures, and later made into thousands of hand-bound unique flip books.
Type of work
Book, installation and talk
Published in
PARSE HUMAN CONFERENCE
Stockholm Art Book Fair
Moderna Museet book shop (during exhibition Mud Muses)
Linköpings Universitet
Link to web site
http://www.jimpalt.org/flipbooks/
View/ Open
Date
2019-04-01Creator
Essvik, Olle
Keywords
Media archeology
Code
Books
publishing
Publication type
artistic work
Language
eng