Carley Johnson Looking Outwards 04

This week I am inspired by the brief installation piece (already finished with its short run) in Berlin created by onformative called Meandering River. It was up July 28-30. I love how this piece seeks to unite the seemingly opposite feelings of nature versus technology by using sound and image (and algorithms) to show the ebbing and flowing of rivers over time. The algorithm is meant to randomize the patterns of the river, changing them and creating as they might actually exist in real time. The sound then interprets the river’s movement and so also constantly changes to mimic and complement the ever-evolving visual landscape.  In this way, the artist hopped to create a sense of moving through time, getting lost in the movement of a river created by visual art and sound. I would have loved to see this piece, as I can just imagine getting lost and spending hours listening to how the music changes and watching the visuals, knowing that each moment is being generated and changed in real time like a river. It’d be fun to spend some time near an actual rushing body of water and then see this exhibit to judge how they compare.

A photo of the visual detail created by the algorithm, which is displayed over a series of screens.