“How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension”, is the titel of a paper by the mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot in 1967, there he linked the first time mathematical fractal objects with natural forms.
In the performance „Self-Similarity“ Wolfgang Spahn displays sonification and visualisation of fractal systems. Analog computer and analog neural systems are in a audio-visual dialogue with the self-simularity of the nature in Patagonia in huge and macroscopic scale.
Both, sound and projection are based on different analogue and digital machines developed by the artist. The unique performance „Self-Similarity“ is able to merge audio and video by transforming the data stream of a digital projector into sound and creating an audio-visual presentation of the electromagnetic-fields coils and motors generate. By hacking VGA signals, amplifying their sound and implementing both aspects in his performance Spahn visualises the importance of the machine as an integral part of the art – an artistic reference to Vilem Flussser’s concept of the ‘apparatus’.
The technology has been developed by the artist as open hardware and open software and is published on dernulleffekt.de.
https://soundcloud.com/wolfgang-spahn/self-similarity-fibonacci
