2005 / 3:30 min / DV PAL / sound Florian Kindlinger

Digital technology offers the possibility to work with constantly repetitive data. By altering only minimal parameters the formerly identical loop starts changing every time it is produced.The picture of two trains moving in opposite directions is exposed to the continuing process of digital compression. By first importing and then exporting the material of five seconds length into the software, the information of the footage is diminished step by step until the formerly concrete image vanishes into white. The source material of the soundtrack is a sample of train noise, played on monitor speakers to be recorded with a microphone. After repeating this procedure numerous times the sound dissolves in its spatial resonance. The video deals with the process of spread and exchange of information, as it nowadays happens primarily on the internet and other media-systems.

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Global trade of goods is related to the exchange of (immaterial) electronic information. Its effects and consequences on terms such as “original” and “copy” is being questioned. As a result the source material is put through a radical tranformation.

Zu den Konventionen des narrativen Filmbildes gehören zwei unreflektierte Gewissheiten. Erstens, dass Film die Zentralperspektive unserer alltäglichen Raumwahrnehmung abbildet (oben/unten; links/rechts; close-up/Totale). Zweitens, dass uns der Film die lineare Unumkehrbarkeit der Zeit vor Augen führt (Vertikalität; vorher/nachher).

Diese beiden Grundprinzipien filmischer Illusionswirkung relativiert Import/Export. Das Bild von zwei „Zügen“, die sich scheinbar in zwei gegensätzliche Richtungen bewegen, bilden vermittels eines digitalen „Loops“ eine kontinuierliche Zeitachse. Auf dieser werden minimale Parameter verändert: In der Zeitspanne von jeweils 5 Sekunden wird die digitale Bildinformation importiert und exportiert. Diese Information des Footage wird im Gesamtverlauf Schritt für Schritt vermindert bis sich das anfänglich konkrete Bild in weiße Unschärfe auflöst .

Ramón Reichert

2003 / loop / DV PAL / silent

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Dictionary is a work that deals with the economy of time. The thoughts of a waiting woman become the score of the video’s own decomposition, using an algorithm, which was developed for data compression. Over the duration of five minutes, a voice from the off describes what is happening in the waiting room.

The dictionary based compression technology generates a dictionary of all words or phrases used in a message; the second time a specific element occurs, it is not transferred as such – the receiver knows which word is meant by the sender and puts the first instance, saved in the dictionary, in its place. As a consequence, redundancy in the message is avoided, and the information can be transferred more efficiently.

Applying this technique word by word to spoken text, which is coupled with the footage showing a womans head turning around the vertical axis very slowly, the smooth movement in the flux of time and the natural expression of the woman is radically deformed. As time proceeds and the more the dictionary is filled with entries, the more drastic the decomposition becomes manifest.

Known as ‘Dictionary Based Compression’, which is used e.g. in .zip programs, .gif images or .pdfs, the algorithm was invented by Jacob Ziv and Abraham Lempel in 1977.