My format is incompatible. Off the Record is about reading and seeing, about script and image. Thought about these cultural techniques consolidates itself, in this installation, to a physical object. The 80 CD-ROM’s are illuminated by 80 halogen emitters. They turn at different speeds and break up the light of the emitters. On the CDs, which originate from archives of the artist, is data from past projects. My train of thought and its animated play back disturb hopefully the user surface. But the CD-ROM’s are inscribed in a further way. Onto the surface of each CD, the images of text are inscribed with a milling cutter. These consist of ornamentally arranged text, which reflect, playfully, personal work with digital working. The text images play not only with language, but also with the letters as symbols - they are distorted, rotated, drawn out etc... The inscriptions of some disks can be deciphered with a glance, the content of others can be recognized only as they turn, if they break the light of the emitters, which is directed toward them. The inscribing on a poetic level into the physical data medium of the CD-ROM’s makes the digital data unreadable. As code masters I extend our game role elements. The installation takes up the elements of a CD drive. The light of the halogen headlights corresponds to the laser beam, which codes the information. At the same time it produces an overwhelming physical sensation in the tightness of the build up: The eyes hurt, the skin warm up. At the same time the viewer is reflected in the silver disks, which takes up his participation in the process of reading and noticing again. OFF THE RECORD integrates the bodyless digital beeing into the embodied human process of thinking and working.
Text: Valie Djordjevic
Off the Record