Digital communication.

This project evolved from a critical evaluation of Nuhn's UNCAGED series, which suggested that, despite the perceptual fusion between its virtual and physical elements UNCAGED ultimately suggests an unbridgeable ontological gap between the two domains. In response, his subsequent research investigates further the specific nature of the virtual and how it differs from the real. Artistically, Nuhn approaches this question by looking at possibilities of translating digital information into physical representations of these virtual data. In this way he is trying to make tangible the elusive nature of virtuality and to juxtapose virtual interaction with actual experiences in the physical world. In Digital Communication, the user messages of a live, public Internet chat room are transcribed into a chat of mechanical fingers. By taking back to reality the virtual communication without ignoring its underlying nature of binary data code, this installation is aimed at being faithful to a concrete understanding of digital information, and to present, as a new language, the translation of pure electric impulses.
Premiered at:
Third Biennale of Contemporary Art, Bourges/France, Art-Tension Gallery (9/11/2006 -19/11/2006) See: http://art_tension.club.fr/la%20franchise.html
Subsequently shown:
As part of a solo exhibition at Le Vivat, Lille-Armentières/France (08/12/2006 -02/02/2007).
Bandits-Mages - International Festival of Art, Video and Multimedia, Bourges/France (9/5/2007 - 13/5/2007).
External funding: £ 4,000
Technical support: Martin Robinson
Discussed in:
Nuhn, R. (2006) “Digital Communication”, Proc. Systems Research in the Arts: Music, Environmental design and the Choreography of Space ‘06, Vol. 8, The International Institute for Advanced Studies in Systems Research and Cybernetics, pp 31-36, ISBN 1894613538.
Nuhn, R. (2006) “How to inseminate the celibate machine?”, paper presented at Engaging Baudrillard: An International Multi-Disciplinary Conference, Swansea University, 2006. An extended version of the paper (8,000 words) will be published in the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies Vol 4/1 in Jan 2008.