Timo Kahlen

/source/ (postfactual)

2017

Artist/s: Timo Kahlen

Title: /source/ (postfactual)

Year: 2017

Edition / Serial number: 8

Category: Installation; Computer-based

Material / Technique: website

Collection: ZKM | Center for Art and Media

Description: Change of values? “/source/ (postfactual)” (2017) invites the viewer to search for reliable sources, for valid ‘facts’ and nodes of information on the internet. A seemingly void, monochrome white surface is all it shows; and frustrates the viewer with a mouse cursor, which is difficult to locate, to control and to direct, as isolated potential ‘facts’ pop up in interaction with the cursor: appearing but distorted, head-over and uncomfortably remote, as if projected onto the reverse side of the computer screen. The alternating objects are accompanied by outbursts of sound and bustle, only to be quenched and extinguished shortly afterwards. The interactive work of net art is composed of multiple embedded layers of sound woven into a touch-sensitive visual projection. It is generated by the viewer – live, and always different -, depending on the relative position, movement and speed, on eventual pauses or on changes in direction of the mouse cursor, as the viewer‘s attention meanders across the touch- sensitive visual projection. Search, roll over, pause or click at the ‘empty’ white surface of the computer display with the mouse cursor, to discover and discard potential facts in real-time. Released on January 20, 2017 or later. According to rumors, however, the work was already visible and audible before. This is alternatively true. Published on Digital America. Honorary mention at the prize question ‘What‘s the Net Listening To?’ (Junge Akademie Berlin, Leopoldina and ZKM I Karlsruhe), 2017.