ALAALLL, a light at a level below

Technical note...
The quality of Vimeo's encoding process is unable to accurately represent the detail of this video. The video is offered here only as a short and rough approximation of a much finer-grained version. A higher-res video can be downloaded at the following link (758mb ), http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29267054/ALAALLL.mov.zip

About the software...
You can download and run the actual software at the following link, http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29267054/ALAALLL.zip
The download is the latest software revision: Feb.15, 2013, Macintosh-only, approximately 91mb download includes both the app and a quicktime video (required by the app).

The video, "ALAALLL, a light at a level below", is an 8-minute excerpt documentating a generative, non-figurative software application of variable duration that is intended for real-time computer display. The process generates algorithmic images based on a one-dimensional list of values from a mathematical equation, and uses a time-shifting technique for three-dimensional visualization of the iterated sequence of numbers.  Codework for "a light at a level below" constructs both a montage structure and a sensory logic for the interplay of visualizations (the level of visibility) with unseen-yet-detectable components operating within the work (the levels of invisibility).  This logic includes the intermittant "perturbation" of the number sequence's periodic attractors (the emergent cyclical patterns that characterize this particular equation). Another way of stating this: the number sequence's visualized state of periodic equilibrium is shoved around by means of a hidden movie clip (from "Romance Sentimentale" by Eisenstein & Alexandrov, 1930) in the video buffer of the computer that is never visibly displayed (although its continual playback can be heard).  The invisible representational elements in the buffered video trigger deformations of the visual display, while simultaneously the odd periodicities of the number sequence itself (history of a system "on the edge of chaos") map themselves as fracturing rhythms onto the playback of the video (a different encoding of the past), expanding the range of interactions among the seen and unseen components.

Another work in this series is documented on this site, "The Hole in the Sock".

 
 

   

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