Vibrator 2.2

Art collaboration with Prokop Bartonicek and Tomislav Arnaudov as pebe/lab (2016)

web: http://www.prokopbartonicek.com/vibrator-2008-2

“Beauty in art” is no doubt an endless discussion that never reaches a crystallised definition, even less so in the context of data or information. But since the topic of the semester (Berlin UdK, 2008), where this work originates in, was not about beauty as such, but about interpretation of data in general, I turned to searching for “beauty” in networks of networks – the internet. I looked at how the widest audience today is seeing beauty in digital space. The beauty of feelings, ideas, curves of bodies. Global, anonymous and mass interest in pornography on the network led me to concentrate in my work on the pleasure and beauty for one person. The object is connected to the busiest porno server in the world. It vibrates and lights up based on the increases or decreases of the viewership of the most requested video sequences. The anonymous interest of the mass of users from the entire world is thus concentrated into an object for one. Roughly every several dozen seconds, the object gets new information and changes its activity. If the viewership increased briskly, then the vibrator pulses upwards (fade in) more than in the case of a smaller growth of viewership. In the event of a decline of viewership, the object then pulses downwards (fade out), from slow to even slower intervals. When one holds a small button at the end of the device, the object is active according to the previous measurement, thus making it possible to compare the development of viewership. The vibrator is managed from the computer via Bluetooth wireless technology and is powered by a chargeable battery. It is made out of glass and stainless steel, run by a microprocessor and a remote computer that is connected to the Internet.