In a pitch-black room, twelve screens and twelve speakers make up the audiovisual horizon, revealing the dynamics of twelve identical image and sound-generating machines. Inspired by the principles of evolution and decentralized autonomous decision making, 12_Series implements forms of audiovisual imitation, mutation, and recombination, aiming for the emergence of a captivating complexity out of a vocabulary of rudimentary shapes, sounds, and logic.

Despite their identical binary DNA, the twelve machines develop into individuals by reacting to their neighbours and adapting to centrally organized environmental variables. The imitative interaction establishes more complex group behaviour, steering groups of machines into similar audiovisual directions. Mutation initiates variation by injecting errors into the imitative process. Recombination enables the interchange and reinterpretation of output material among the twelve machines, adding another layer of coherency. The installation thus focuses on the tension between the individual and the group, between the machine-specific development and the group dynamics that determine the ever-evolving abstract horizon.

Apart from developing building blocks that assemble into complex generative individuals, the aim is to investigate the boundaries of their mutative behaviour, allowing the results to surpass our imagination.

INFORMATION
2009/2011 / SXGA / 12.2 surround / generative audiovisual installation – 12 screens portrait mode, 12 channel sound
Image & sound by Telcosystems
Production by Spatial Media Laboratories in collaboration with Baltan Laboratories, NL, and Woodstreet Galleries, US
Distribution by V2_Agency
Supported by Fonds BKVB, Mondriaan Foundation, The Netherlands Film Fund, DKC Rotterdam

EXHIBITIONS
International Film Festival Rotterdam, NL, 2011
SensXperiment Festival, ES, 2011
STRP Festival, NL, 2011
Flux/S festival, Eindhoven, NL, 2010
Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh, US, 24th of April 2009

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Check out in our shop 12_series book with a DVD
Book, 64 pp., English text, illustrated
Published by Spatial Media Laboratories (SML)
Design by Femke Herregraven
With essays by Arie Altena, Joost Rekveld, and Murray Horne