ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien

»Genealogy of the Digital Code«
2017, Installation

»Linear Navigator (1999): Jeffrey Shaw«

The »Genealogy of the Digital Code« displays the history of digital codes in the form of an interactive wall chart. Monitors move across a virtual panorama, which stretches along the wall space. With the »Linear Navigator«, visitors can move along a high-resolution timeline and watch short videos embedded in it that visualize the history of the digital code. In this way information can be called up on milestones in the development of computer technology from 1800 to the present-day: development of the binary code, early computers, the first neural network, modern computers, and the development of artificial intelligence. Linear navigation renders the chronology of development easy to grasp.

This virtual timeline is embedded in real infographics, which stretch along the entire wall and further contextualize the virtual chronology.

Idea: Peter Weibel
Conception, realization: ZKM | Institute for Visual Media
Project management: Bernd Lintermann
Editors: Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás, Magdalena Stöger, Olga Timurgalieva
Software: Bernd Lintermann, Nikolaus Völzow
Video post-production and graphics: Moritz Büchner, Frenz Jordt, Jan Kieswetter, Christina Zartmann
Construction: Nelissen Dekorbouw