FRANZ JOHN - About

Turing Tables

An Untitled Composition for Tectonic Spaces

Several million earthquakes of different intensities occur each year.Seismological institutes throughout the world measure these vibrations and exchange and communicate this collected data among themselves via automated internet-transfers.It is this meta-perception that Franz John makes visible in his project “Turing Tables,” siphoning this human-machine-communication data stream directly from internet servers of seismographic institutes and bringing it into his online installation.

In a matter of seconds, this installation converts these measurements from the seismological stations into sound and image. From the perspective of a "global eye" the internet directly connects the observer with the pulsating core of the earth. This project is therefore not about the catastrophes that cause these movements in inhabited areas, but instead about the archaic feeling and consciousness that the earth is an organism, that it moves and that it can be understood as an organism in constant flux.

“This artistic realization is based on the machine-theory of the mathematician Alan Turing, wherein my interest is not in the number-chain itself but rather in the tectonic forces and energies of a matrix which is visibly and continually updating and renewing itself.”

The “Turing Tables” project was developed over several years through cooperation and exchange with numerous scientists and researchers. Special thanks to: Dr. Charles Estabrook, Seismologist, San Francisco; John C. Lahr, Seismologist, U.S. Geological Survey; Dr. Winfried Hanka, Seismologist, GFZ Potsdam; Dr. Udo Thiedeke, Sociologist, Universität Mainz, ArtBit. Special thanks also to Mona Mur (musician) and to Dirk Schubert (programmer) for their collaboration on the first version of Turing Tables 2000 - 2002.

The current version of Turing Tables (since 2003) was developed in collaboration with sound artist Ed Osborn (Oakland, CA) and brsma (Berlin)

--- current/past ---------------

EcoMedia - Ecological Strategies in Art Today
Exhibition: Feb. 10 - Apr. 26 2009, Sala Parpalló, Valencia, Spain [info]
Lecture series: Feb 11 - April 26 / Franz John, Feb 11, 7.00pm [info]
Other presenters include Critical Art Ensemble, Sabrina Raaf, Andrea Polli, Roger F. Malina, and Transnational Temps.

EcoMedia was previously shown at:
Jan 18 2008 - Mar 23 2008 [plug.in], Basel, Switzerland | http://www.iplugin.org
Oct 12 2007 - Jan 13 2008 Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg, Germany
Kulturstiftung des Bundes (info dt/engl) EcoMedia / Ökomedien

Exploratorium, San Francisco, 31. Mar - 18. Jun 2006 (individual exhibit)
www.exploratorium.edu, in cooperation with: www.goethe.de
review: sounds of earth moving (by jennifer viegas, discovery news)
review: journey to the center of the earth (by joshua steele)

nomination: international media-art award 2004, zkm karlsruhe: http://www.medienkunstpreis.de
nomination: ars electronica 2006 ars electronica

"communication in evolution", 27. 9.05 - 28.10.05 Gran Canaria Espacio Digital
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
banquete05_communication in evolution (english-version)

media lab madrid "communication in evolution", 18.01.05 - 15.02.05
banquete05_communication in evolution (english-version)
banquete05_communication in evolution (spanish)
http://www.medialabmadrid.org

ListeningOut: presentation of turing tables, transmediale Berlin, 04.02.05
http://www.transmediale.de