Searchsongs, Sniff_jazzbox, and Appleinspace: Beat Suter, René Bauer, and Johannes Auer
Title: Searchsongs (2006)
URL: http://searchsongs.cyberfiction.ch
Title: Sniff_jazzbox (2007)
URL: http://www.and-or.ch/sniff_jazzbox/
Title: Appleinspace (2004)
URL: http://appleinspace.cyberfiction.ch
Note: 1. and 2. are a cooperative work of AND-OR (Beat Suter, René Bauer) and Johannes Auer. 3. is a work by AND-OR (Beat Suter, René Bauer) only.
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Title of the project 1: Searchsongs
Year the work was created: 2006
Authors: AND-OR (Beat Suter, René Bauer) and Johannes Auer
URL: http://searchsongs.cyberfiction.ch
URL of documentation (pictures, videos, descriptions, events, press coverage): http://www.and-or.ch/searchsongs/
Description of the work:
SearchSongs captures the stream of words of Lycos' live search. This stream of words might be understood as an expression of collective desire, as the net's melody of yearning, which is played by thousands of people, who at any moment try to reach the desired by means of a search engine. This melody of yearning is made audible by SearchSongs.
Words contain playable tones of the musical notation system (c, d, e, f, g, a, h, c, fis, ces ...). On one side SearchSongs' web interface shows the stream of words of the live search, on the other side there are lines of musical notes below which transform playable letters in musical notes. Non-playable letters define the length of a tone.
In ancient Greece there already was a notation system of letters which was used for indicating the pitch of a tone, and the length of a tone was marked with a symbol written above the letter. A traditioned example is the Seikilos epitaph dated from the second century B.C. The most well known example of a word set to music by a letter notation system is the B-A-C-H motif, which Johann Sebastian Bach repeatedly used in his compositions.
SearchSongs refers to traditional letter notation systems like the Seikilos epitaph and the B-A-C-H motif. SearchSongs accentuates the correlation between letters and notes in a more determined and concrete way. Furthermore the theme of musical improvisation is juxtaposed by a random generator, and the strict rules of the musical notation system is antagonized by algorithme. In this respect at the end the subjective search is being objectivized by the melody of the SearchSongs.
However the SearchSongs keep their personal momentum by making it possible for visitors and listeners to interactively insert own words into the stream of words and take part in playing music.
SearchSong is a highly complex mesh of language and music interaction between human being, machine and net communication, between text input, musical notation, programming and a real-time stream of words of a live search.
Presentation:
SearchSongs may be shown as an interactive installation (on any PC) or performed live by a musician like cellist Erik Borgir (20 minutes).
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Title / name of work 2: Sniff_Jazzbox
Year the work was created: 2007
Authors: AND-OR (Beat Suter, René Bauer) and Johannes Auer
URL of project and documentation:
http://www.and-or.ch/sniff_jazzbox/
Description of the project:
Sniff_jazzbox creates an audible city. it converts the wlan-waves into sound waves. The wlan conversion uses a streamsearch algorithm which was also used in the projects streamfishing and searchsongs.
Sniff_jazzbox captures the wlans in the immediate area like a wardrive-tool and produces a stream of wlan-names. this stream of words might be understood as a subconscious expression of the presently existing communication networks. sniff_jazzbox renders private data visible, translates it and makes it audible as a melody of yearning for contact and exchange.
Sniff_jazzbox can be used anywhere in modern society where wireless accesspoints are used. It shows the communication patterns of an area and transposes them into music.
Sniff_jazzbox captures the wlans in the immediate area like a wardrive-tool and creates a playful art work. it reads the names of the hotspots in your immediate area and turns them into music. The melodies change according to your position in the metro area.
Sniff_jazzbox is a complex mesh of language and music interaction between human being, machine and wireless communication, between physical motion, real-time data capturing, streaming, musical notation and programming. sniff_jazzbox creates an audible city.
The names of the captured hotspots contain playable tones of the musical notation system (c, d, e, f, g, a, h, c, fis, ces ...). as you walk, ride or drive through town you will inevitably encounter loads of hotspots which are accessible for your little machine. sniff_jazzbox is made for the portable Nintendo DS and NDS, it registers all the hotspots and turns them into music. Try it out! Walk through your neighbourhood or any town - preferably in the evening - and hear the wireless and invisble communication around you!
Sniff_jazzbox uses the portable Nintendo DS device. It may be shown on a guided walk through town (30 - 45 mnutes). The authors have five devices ready.
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title of work 3: appleinspace
Year the work was created: 2004
Authors: AND-OR (Beat Suter, René Bauer)
URL: http://appleinspace.cyberfiction.ch
URL of documentation: http://www.and-or.ch/appleinsapce/
Description of work:
An apple a day saves ... Is the apple getting eaten by a worm or does he open a whole new world? Meet the appleinspace.
The net-literature-project “appleinspace" plays with the appropriation of the world. The experimental piece of net literature deals with the complete works of the well known poet Reinhard Döhl and the linguistic and communicative possibilities of internet search engines.
Crossing borders, experiments, the appropriation of reality instead of a depiction of the world, dialogic art, the play with associations: this is Reinhard Döhl's work - accessible at www.reinhard-doehl.de. The Stuttgart based artist died on May 29, 2004. He was always a border crosser between word and image, between symbol and term, moving around between the language of art and the language of literature and art theory. “appleinspace" is dedicated to him.
It is a multi-layer-hommage experimenting with reality, textual reality as well as with the complete text assemblage of Reinhard Döhl which plays with the unconscious, simularity, and volatility.
Concept
Reinhard Döhl's probably most famous work is the concrete Apfelgedicht (Apple Poem) from 1965. The apple is designed with the continuously repeated word "apfel". The words are arranged to form an image of an apple. Visual poetry. And right in the middle is the worm.
But time didn't stand still for the worm either. 30 years later it bites its way through an apple in Johannes Auer's net poem "worm applepie for döhl". The worm is animated - greedy and insatiable. It grows and grows until the apple is eaten. And then the game around worm and apple and Adam and Eve begins again.
“appleinspace" now refers to Reinhard Döhl's and Johannes Auer's apple art. The Döhlian apple ventures into virtual space and is confronted with a permanent buzz of real thoughts. Thoughts and ideas which can also be found in Reinhard Döhl's complete work infiltrate the apple. However, they don't eat it up, but rather fill the apple with Döhlian ideas.
Appleinspace is a created as a Java applet, it can be presented on a small or big screen. It needs a Mac to run. Does not show right on browsers in windows (flickering).