TEXT SI
Projekt ,ločene vrednosti raziskuje simulacijski potencial podatkovnih procesov, ki predstavljajo ključni element sodobnih kulturno-tehnoloških formacij. Digitalne podatkovne zbirke valujočo zveznost sveta abstrahirajo v simbolne zapise in objekte, ki naj bi omogočali natančno opazovanje, analizo in napovedovanje pojavov. Nasproti analognemu, pri katerem lahko variabilni impulzi zvezno prehajajo med kvalitativno različnimi mediji (npr. električna napetost v zvok), digitalno v prenose uvaja diskontinuiteto. Analogno računalništvo, ki je bilo do sredine prejšnjega stoletja vodilno in široko uporabljano tudi za modeliranje in napovedovanje naravnih pojavov, kot je plimovanje, je ob nastopu digitalnih tehnologij zatonilo – tudi zato, ker ni omogočalo primerljive natančnosti in ponovljivosti izračunov ter njihove neodvisnosti od fizičnih komponent.
A razvoj tehnologije od mehaničnega k računalniškemu oziroma prehod iz analogne v digitalno paradigmo ni jasen in premočrten. Po eni strani je bila digitalna logika prisotna že v na videz povsem analognih postopkih, kot sta recimo tkanje in kronofotografija. Po drugi strani pa se zaradi hitrosti, moči in energetske ekonomičnosti analognega računalništva zadnje čase razmišlja tudi o njegovi ponovni vpeljavi na področja, ki lahko prenašajo določen spekter odstopanj pri izračunih, kot sta recimo umetna inteligenca in strojno zaznavanje. Nekateri zato špekulirajo, da bo prihodnost računalništva bistveno bolj vpletala analogno, kot smo morda pričakovali do nedavnega.
,ločene vrednosti pojave v obliki digitalnih podatkovnih nizov s serijo prenosov med analognim in digitalnim ter signalnim in podatkovnim uporabijo za materializacijo podatkovnih modelov. Razstavljeni modeli niso v povsem arbitrarnem razmerju do digitalnih podatkov, na katerih temeljijo, a vez med njimi ne pretendira na enosmernost, neposrednost ali reprezentativnost. Tudi digitalni podatki so (zaradi npr. fizičnih lastnosti analogno-digitalnih senzorjev, ranljivosti podatkovnih serverjev, časovnih oken in spreminjanja medijskih formatov) namreč vse prej kot celoviti ali objektivni. Zato lahko digitalne podatke mislimo ne zgolj kot diskretna dejstva, ampak kot odprte dinamične materialne oblike.
Razstavni prostor zasedajo fosforescentni objekti in analogna projekcija elektronskega žarka z osciloskopskega zaslona, ki namiguje na izhodišče teh objektov. Projicirana krivulja je proizvedena s pomočjo posebej razvitega analogno-digitalnega orodja za signalno procesiranje, ki digitalne podatke iz simbolnega (CSV-) zapisa pretvarja v električno napetost. Takšna oblika omogoča analogno procesiranje signala in se v svoji pojavnosti približuje zveznosti, šumom in neponovljivosti fizičnih pojavov. Signal (podatki) se na osciloskopskem zaslonu prikazuje kot fosforne linije, ki se ob spreminjanju faznih zamikov zdijo kot različni zorni koti na posamezen tridimenzionalni objekt.
Na podlagi videoposnetkov tovrstnih osciloskopskih krivulj so bili v okolju za videogrametrijo, podprtem z AI, oblikovani 3D-modeli. Programsko okolje je linije samosvoje zaznalo kot tridimenzionalne objekte in v procesu ustvarilo globino, kjer je drugače ni. Ta transformacija ne temelji na perspektivičnem režimu vizualnosti, kot ga ponazarja camera obscura, temveč sloni na paralelnem razvoju “multistabilnih” podob in dimenzionalnega modeliranja, ki so vodili k razvoju računalniškega modeliranja in grafike. Njihove pomembne iztočnice Galloway locira v Braunejevem in Fischerjevem fotografskem grajenju modelov, ki je dajalo prednost vlogi podatkov, in v Willèmovih fotoskulpturah, ki pomnožujejo, zaobračajo in virtualizirajo gledišče, s tem pa “spreminjajo fotografijo v plastično umetnost”, ko jo širijo “preko neskončne mreže točk” [1] ter zavračajo časovno os v prid osi prostora.
Podatkovni modeli so bili v končni stopnji materializirani kot 3D tiskani objekti, ki ob sprejemanju in oddajanju svetlobe v svoji pojavnosti nihajo med virtualnim in fizičnim. Namesto semantične ali funkcionalne vrednosti podatkovnih modelov ,ločene vrednosti v ospredje postavljajo njihovo plastičnost in formativno moč, obenem pa modelirajo tudi potencialnosti analogno-digitalnih prepletov, ki jih podatki in impulzi prečijo v procesu.
[1] Alexander Galloway, Uncomputable: Play and Politics In the Long Digital Age, Verso, London/New York 2021, str. 37.
TEXT EN
The project ,separated values explores the simulative potential of data processes, a key element of contemporary cultural and technological formations. Digital databases abstract the world’s fluid continuities into symbolic inscriptions and objects intended to facilitate the precise observation, analysis and prediction of phenomena. In contrast to the analog, where variable impulses can pass continuously between qualitatively different media (e.g., electricity to sound), the digital introduces discontinuity into transmissions. Until the mid-20th century, analog computing was the leading and most widely-used method for modelling and predicting natural phenomena, such as tides. It later declined with the advent of digital technologies, not the least because analog computing did not allow for comparable accuracy and reproducibility of calculations and their independence from physical components.
However, the technological evolution from the mechanical to the computational, that is, the transition from the analog to the digital paradigm, is not straightforward and unambiguous. On the one hand, digital logic was already present in seemingly entirely analog processes, such as weaving and chronophotography. On the other hand, the speed, power and energy efficiency of analog computing has recently prompted considerations of reintroducing it into areas that can tolerate a certain range of deviations in calculations, such as artificial intelligence and machine perception. Some, therefore, speculate that the future of computing will involve analog to a much greater extent than we have expected until recently.
With a series of analog-to-digital and signal-to-data transfers ,separated values uses phenomena in the form of digital datasets to materialise data models. The exhibited models are not entirely arbitrary in relation to the digital data on which they are based, but their link does not presume unidirectionality, directness or representativeness. Indeed, due to factors like the physical characteristics of analog-digital sensors, the vulnerability of data servers, time windows and changing media formats, digital data is also anything but comprehensive or objective. Rather than mere discrete facts, digital data can be considered as open, dynamic material forms.
The exhibition space features phosphorescent objects and an analog projection of an electron beam from an oscilloscope screen, which hints at the origins of these objects. A specially developed analog-digital signal processing device, which converts digital data from symbolic (CSV) inscription to electrical voltage, produces the projected waveform. The electrical voltage format allows for analog signal processing and is closer in its form to the continuity, noise and non-repeatability of physical phenomena. The oscilloscope screen displays the signal (data) as phosphor lines, which, as the phase shifts change, appear as different viewpoints on a single three-dimensional object.
Using videos of the oscilloscope waveforms, an AI-assisted videogrammetry environment created 3D models. The software environment perceived the lines as three-dimensional objects and, in the process, created depth where there is none otherwise. Unlike the perspectivistic regime of visuality, as exemplified by the camera obscura, the parallel development of “multistable” images and dimensional modelling, which led to the advent of computational modelling and graphics, forms the basis of this transformation. Galloway identifies the significant points of origin of such images in Braune and Fischer’s photographic model-building, which emphasises the role of data, and in Willèm’s photosculptures, which multiply, invert and virtualise the viewpoint, thus converting “photography into a plastic art” by expanding it “across a limitless grid of points” [1] and rejecting the time axis in favour of spatial axes.
In the final step, the artist materialised the data models as 3D-printed objects, which, receiving and emitting light, oscillate in their appearance between the virtual and the physical. Rather than the semantic or functional value of the data models, ,separated values foreground their plasticity and formative power while also modelling the potentialities of the analog-digital entanglements that data and impulses traverse in the process.
[1] Alexander Galloway, Uncomputable: Play and Politics In the Long Digital Age, Verso, London/New York 2021, p. 37.
