Artists: glorious ninth (Kate Southworth and Patrick Simons)
Title: World: it just keeps changing
Year: 2001
Medium: net art
Size:179kb
Made in September 2001 World: it just keeps changing was a response to the events that subsequently became known as 9.11. The work gives attention to the materiality of digital media and also to specific contemporary events and their contexts. We think that a messy humanness exists alongside the binary data and algorithms. From another perspective, the work is influenced by Bertell Ollman's exposition of Marx and Engels dialectical method - in particular the attention he gives to 'relation' and 'process' within complex systems.
World is made from a shockwave file embedded in an html page which is displayed and disseminated online. The shockwave file is constructed from a number of discrete elements: a looped sound file, single words, sentences and algorithms. An algorithm that defines the parameters of movement is attached to each visual element, producing a dynamic and ever-changing pattern.
World is archived in the Rhizome Artbase. It was submitted to the Artbase on Sunday, November 11th 2001. The description of the work provided by g9 for Rhizome is as follows:
This piece focuses on the constant flow of change in our complex world. There is always movement away from one thing and towards something else, but if the change takes place too slowly then we often ignore it. This piece constantly changes as the different elements within it interact with each other. However, it sometimes seems like there is monolithic inactivity. At other times monumental changes are easier to perceive (glorious ninth, 2001).
Link to net artwork <http://www.gloriousninth.net/world/world.html>
Link to label <http://www.gloriousninth.net/world/label.html>
Link to wall text <http://www.gloriousninth.net/world/wall_text.html>
Link to catalogue raisonne <http://gloriousninth.net/catalogue_raisonne/world.html>
Link to related work: Grid of Stills (2012) [coming soon]
Related Work: World_Grid of Stills (2012)
A related piece of work produced in 2012, is a grid of nine A4 size still images printed on a domestic laser-jet printer. The grid of stills documents the discrete and sometimes invisible elements of the work, such as text-based lists of instructions and database maps; as well as screen shots that index particular moments that emerge as the net art work is enacted.