Binary code is the basis of every digital computer system. Data in and of themselves is neutral; it is only the process of updating it that calls for interpretation by programmes—i.e. the stored information must be translated into an event that human beings can perceive. Thus, for example, both optical and acoustic results can be generated from one and the same batch of data. The installation on display here is a systematic and categorical treatment of this phenomenon—that is to say a simple binary code is translated into spatial, acoustic and optical reference systems.

Music is by definition the deliberate organization of sound in time (and in space), just as a (motion) picture is the organization of forms on a physical surface (in time) and architecture is the plastic organisation of space. A principle that could not conceivably be any simpler is invoked as the basis for a composition and applied in these three disciplines. This work is based on the bit system, and translates the four possible states that two bits can represent (00, 01, 10, 11) into the Cartesian system of coordinates.

Norbert Pfaffenbichler (Austria, 1967), lives and works as an artist and curator in Vienna; founding member of vidok and lanolin; member of Sixpackfilm; master cuMarc in visual media design at the University of Applied Art; numerous exhibitions and works on display at festivals in Linz, Graz, Geneva, New York, Tokyo, Berlin, Venice, Osnabrück, Paris, Nyon, Basel, Barcelona, et al.

www.vidok.org
www.lanolin.at
www.sixpackfilm.com

Michael Aschauer (Austria, 1977) since 1999, master cuMarc in visual media design at the University of Applied Art; lives in Vienna where he works as an artist primarily with code in the Internet, image and sound; nominated for the 2003 International Media Art Prize of the ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany.

http://m.ash.to

Lotte Schreiber (Austria, 1971), lives and works as an artist in Vienna; studied architecture at the Technical University in Graz and the Universities of Edinburgh and Naples; since March 2001, assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Art in Linz; numerous exhibitions and works on display at festivals in Linz, Graz, Geneva, New York, Tokyo, Berlin, Osnabrück, Paris, Nyon, Basel, Barcelona, et al.; award for Best Experimental Film at the 2003 New York Underground Film Festival; nominated for the 2003 International Media Art Prize of the ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany.

www.sixpackfilm.com