THE ARCHI
VE OF INCUBATING DATA
Every day 2,5 billion GB of data is created. Less than 0,5% is ever examined or used. Yet data evolves to be increasingly self-aware. Metadata enables the data to categorise, analyse and protect itself.
What if the data becomes more concerned with its own labeling than the real world it is supposed to portray? What if it keeps generating metadata of the metadata, indexes of catalogues, histories of libraries, and by doing so gets stuck in a livelock, in an endless cycle of self-reference?
Would the data overwrite reality by syncing to its own feedback loop? Would its advanced security mechanism cause hermetical isolation? But ultimately, would the data at all exist if no one was there to look at it?
THE ARCHIVE OF INCUBATING DATA is a space-light-sound installation by artist duo Marie Alice Wolfszahn & Manuel Biedermann. They’ve recreated an abandoned claustrophobic archive where “data” has begun a life of its own—animated light tubes pierce through the office cabinets, hinting at an outbreak of some sort, while a dark omnipresent soundscape reinforces a dystopian mood.
Supported by RADIUM
WHAT
Installation
WHERE
Vienna
WHEN
2019