(1 min 12) This is the version of Julius Popp's exhibit "Bit.Fall" at the MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) in Hobart, Tasmania.
A Bit.Fall is a waterfall of words. It creates a cascade of words sourced from live news feeds. The work is a play between the highly technological system and its relationship to nature.
In Bit.Fall, information is represented by words generated by a computer program, based on a statistical algorithm. The program filters relevant terms from the current stream of news on the internet and transmits the values to the control unit of Bit.Fall. In a split second, the machine releases hundreds of drops at specific intervals, creating a ‘waterfall’ of words.
Each drop of water becomes a liquid and transient ‘pixel’ or ‘bit’, the smallest unit of information. Bit.Fall combines two distinct circulation systems – circulation in nature (through its own laws, such as gravity) and circulation in culture (through the degrees of social attention as recorded by statistics).
In the unit at Mona, one word falls evewry second (although other Bit.Falls may well be varied). Here's what the Bit.Fall threw out in one minute of the 20 March 2016:
high
Heckenberg
missing
Car
Brisbane
Smith
continues
threatens
Fox
Council
Quirk
election
elections
Russell
Trump's
welfare
manhunt
Iain
last
launches
Natale
Cyclist
split
Council
Tory
Car
Lord
escalates
Istanbul
vote
continues
comfortable
conversation
manhunt
Labor
Suicide
missing
Brisbane
ride
after
Cyclist
Graham
suspect
Russia
crashed
kills
Megyn
dog
four
Kelly
panic
govt
exit
threatens
Trump's
high
Iain
sign
