“A durational intermedia performance by Bruce Gilchrist, where language is prioritised in the
making of things; a balancing act between fiction and technology, automation and liveness.”
“Human and machine productivity is a central concern in Stop Searching Else Loop Forever, but rather than one being yoked to the other and made to march together in time, diverse temporal approaches are used to seek solutions to the same problem. One time system is imported as a library by a computer script, while another is embodied by the artist and influenced by external ‘zeitgeber’ (‘time giver’ from chronobiology). Additionally, as a form of counter current, an interactive work leverages proximity via a sensor to enact a pause—a tangible demonstration of the suspension of time’s metaphorical flow. All share an iterative looping method to shuffle textual and visual material, but while the machine repeatedly and consistently solves the language game in a matter of seconds (8-20 heartbeats), it remains uncertain whether the artist can achieve even one solution within the four-week timeframe of the exhibition. The slow, monotonous, and possibly fruitless cadence of the artist in the gallery is juxtaposed with the relative lightning speed of the computer, which, in its haste, renders each solution illegible. This explicit mismatch symbolises the routine coexistence of technology running on inexhaustible ‘Epoch time’—representing the relentless pursuit of growth and technological advancement at any cost—and the human worker constrained by an idiosyncratic biological clock, regulated by external cues and social customs.”
Link to full artist text︎︎︎
︎︎︎Wordclouds were generated from text documents of Bertrand Russell's "ABC of Relativity" and Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching", which were then manipulated in p5.js as a sequence of nine prints. Framed, 32cm x 32cm on Hahnemühle Museum Etching in an edition of Three. Inquire︎︎︎Installation views︎︎︎. All images courtesy the artist.
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