self.detach

self.detach is a dynamic Object, which adopts a critical position towards the celebration of the ego on the internet by dissolving self-portraying pictures into coloured particles.

starting point

self.detach was created in the course of the semester theme „beauty of data“ at the university of arts, berlin. the initial idea was to visualize streams of real time data on the internet. While looking at different streams, the main interest shifted towards the live feed of Flickr.com, an online platform on which millions of users upload thousands of photos every minute.
Looking for an adequate medium to visualize the Data Stream in space, coloured sand as a physical methaphor for pixels seemed fitting. In a first step a software was developed to gather statistic information about the number of images uploaded as well as the distribution of colours.

while watching the software at work, with all the uploaded photos being displayed, it became obvious that a social analysis rather than a mere technical, statistical one is even more interesting. the live feed contains strikingly many photos showing the photographer in person. It seems that many users are trying to create themselves an online identity by staging their own life, an unpromising intention, in comparison to the sheer mass of photos of other users.
another approach to identity and images can be found in a buddhistic meditative excercise: the laying of a mandala.

A mandala is is a picture of spiritually smbolic nature, composed out of coloured sand by buddhists in a day- or even week long procedure, just to be brushed away after completion. The motivation is to focus on the shown spiritual symbol and eventually come closer to the goal of overcoming ones self-attachment, meaning to seperate one from the deceptive idea of something like a „self“.

„self.detach“ is a monolithic object, not serving the purpose of analyzing the data by quantity, but following a critical design approach. The Flickr live photo stream is constantly downloaded, all currently posted images moving through the beholders’ field of vision on a small display.
Those images tagged with terms like „me“, „myself“, „i“, „moi“, ich“ and so on are displayed larger than the others and dissolved into a stream of red, green and blue particles, which is continued outside of the screen as physically tangible grains of coloured sand. The identities staged on Flickr.com are, like a finished Mandala, dissolved. The decomposition into the basic colors symbolizes the irrelevance of the digital self.

Hardware: Black MDF, black semitransparent plexi, white plexi, 8″ TFT Display, Arduino Microcontroller, modified electric Peppermills, Mac Mini

Software: Processing, proXML Library, traer.physics Library, Arduino Library / Standard Firmata

A project by Jens Wunderling and Tim Horntrich
University of Arts, Berlin – Digital Class
Credits: Felix Hardmood Beck, Digital Media Class, Joachim Sauter, Jussi Ängeslevä, Yellow Too, Matt Karau, Philipp Bosch, Salzbildner/Toni Latenz, Pellarin