2003 Rockefeller New Media Foundation Proposal

Abstract

'Bel-shaz-zar' will take the form of a triptych of large scale projections, each one sourced from a networked Apple Macintosh computer. The installation will take as its conceptual start point the Biblical legend of the 'writing on the wall' which appeared to the Babylonian king Belshazzar heralding the imminent moment of his destruction. Using a series of protocols developed within the programming language 'Lingo', the computers will use their collective 'awareness' of 'real time' and 'elapsed time' to structure a complex and ever evolving series of visual and textural video montages. These montages will through time construct a narrative which posits the viewer in an ever shifting space between the memory of historical trauma and the imaging of futurological catastrophe. Drawing on internal databases of manipulated imagery, sound and montaged video footage taken from historical archive, contemporary urban space, and the 'post apocalyptic' urban spaces of popular science fiction, the computers will 'cut and paste' sequences and juxtapose them with ongoing textural narrative passages generated by the computers in real time.