Virtual Entity Tryptic at ODI
Virtual Entity is a research project (and a work of art) whose practical foundation is software to publish, release and catalogue digital files. The project’s assumption is that every digital entity is an independent creation which has its own life and is able to experience different levels of transformation and progressive generation of meaning, shape and entities. The two main functions of the application are the creation of a metadata set on a database online and the possibility to use the software also as a license. From a theoretical point of view the speculation focuses on the concept of (non) property in the digital/immaterial world and on an ontological redefinition of the entities inhabiting it. From a technical point of view the application allows the creation of a collection of metadata (named soul) which is archived in a database online; this group of information is accessible from any instance of the file, independent of the particular format. The system offers, as well, the possibility to add information within the aura, which is, according to the metaphoric naming of Virtual Entity, that space around the soul where information about the interaction between entity (the file) and external world can be found, in other words the experience of the file. This space has the function to collect the history of the work in its interaction with non-digital reality, and with the rest of the net.
Installation Plan: Virtual Entity Tryptic
The project will be displayed as a tryptic through a series of 3 computers (connected to 3 projectors or eventually 2 monitors plus 1 projector) and 3 posters.
Left monitor - soul command line application: create, edit and read file’s metadata (repository).
Central projector - real-time visualization of the graphs representing the entities populating the database and their relationships. Software developed in Fluxus.
Right monitor - virtual entity website and web application, developed in Django.
The position of the command line application and the Fluxus visualization can be inverted. The tryptic was shown for the first time at Furtherfield Gallery in 2011 as part of Art is Open Source‘s REFF publication. At that event the command line application was centrally projected on the floor of the exhibition space.
Participation: visitors can create or edit metadata and relationships for any file existing in the world wide web. When a new metadata set (soul) is created in the database, the visualization displays in real-time the new entity and its relationships in the universe of souls.
Research: Implement a third type of relation, the polemic relation between entities (relation of opposition). Display graphical (ascii) representation of entity after creation via command line. Add behaviors to the visualized entities: graphs tend to group, the virtual universe is not static, passing the mouse over an entity will display the text contained in it. Querying the database… and can the database query itself? Can self interrogation be implemented to trigger different forms of behavior? Eventually sonification.
Disclaimer: Watch out! This is a viral archive[1].
http://xname.cc/video/ve_anim.mov
Space: one corner or a wall or three contiguous walls with 2 corners. Internet connection (wired is best) and electricity.
Specs: 3 computers, 3 projectors, 3 keyboards, 3 mouses (poss wireless), 3 posters, cables, facilities (wood?) to sit and hide the computers.
Materials and installation costs approx between 120 Pound (min) and 600 Pound (max).
[1] … because the software creates an online soul from a local file, then the mythical monster, and the viral archive (which are the same thing), are a meta-archive and a pseudo-monster, a monster without soul whose body is a collection of souls, and an archive of information which talks about information that is not present.