Interference Wave: Data and Art.

In the era of data visualisation and simulation, there is often a

tendency to consider digital data as external to human life, ontologically

endowed with its own special qualities. In fact, digital data is purely a product

of human endeavour, and yet it exists in a plastic, formless state until it is

interpreted. Thus, the interpretation of digital data can be seen as a formalised

process of interference. This paper attempts to tease out some of the practical

and theoretical considerations artists face when working in realtime 3D

audiovisual environments composed entirely of digital data. This is done

through an examination of the authorʼs collaborative, networked immersive

audiovisual artwork Reproduction, an artificially evolving performative digital

ecology that collaborates and improvises with humans via networks using

various forms of motion, sound and vision capture. Attempts are made at

identifying the qualities and practice of the symbiotic relationship that is

established between humans and digital entities in an affective feedback loop

between the digital and material spheres. Some recent theories in algorithmic

information theory are compared with the empirical results of the artists and

other users interacting and improvising with Reproduction, to test the status of

digital data and its remediated relationship with the material world via

audiovisual display systems.