the conversation

baecker
image/jpeg
500 × 350

ralf baecker
the conversation, 2009
99 solonoides, custom electronics (microcontrollers/drivers), strings, rubberbands, wires

Production support: LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón

This work is part of a series of installations and sculptures that deconstruct the fundamentals of symbolic processes. The autonomous apparatus incorporates an analogue and a digital part that try to adapt to each other, but it is not obvious which part controls which. The machine consists of 99 solenoids mounted in a circle. Together they carry three rubber bands (attractors) in the centre of the circle. Each magnet works autonomously and tries to adapt to the forces in the network. The system aims to keep a balance of forces. By turning the machine on, a process is activated that tries to conserve its initial state by contraction and relaxation. Constellations appear and stay until disturbances make them decay