Cristoforo Magliozzi, Sarah Newman, Jessica Yurkofsky & Marshall Lambert
Date: October 2015
Site: Fenway Park
Links: metaLAB at Harvard, Illuminus Boston 2015
For Illuminus Boston, A Bit in the Abyss consists of a digital storage server in a small shipping container, similar to those used by the Internet Archive for storing the scanned, hard-copy source media they acquire.
As data are accessed, their processing is sonified to represent the growth of server hosts spanning from the origins of the internet to the present. Within the container, mirrors reflect the server’s blinking indicator lights in all directions.
Audience members enter the container in small groups to experience the prismatic effects of light and sound produced therein. The design of the project makes use of the “Droste Effect,” which occurs when images are reflected among multiple mirrors to create the impression of an infinite series.
The effect is also called mise-en-abyme, a French phrase, which translates as “to place in the abyss.” The phrase evokes the existential condition of information storage: as we digitize recorded knowledge, it falls into a virtual abyss of abstraction. - Excerpt from metaLAB
About
Studio Skiffle, shorthandedly referenced here as §, is the playful and improvisational award-winning design and art practice of M. Marshall. Marshall has passion for color, smells, culture, the real, the surreal, the known and the unknown. The work of § reflects the curious and processual methods embraced while exploring and improvising with both digital and analogue technologies.
Studio Skiffle, shorthandedly referenced here as §, is the playful and improvisational award-winning design and art practice of M. Marshall. Marshall has passion for color, smells, culture, the real, the surreal, the known and the unknown. The work of § reflects the curious and processual methods embraced while exploring and improvising with both digital and analogue technologies.
What’s a Skiffle?
The name of § was influenced by the music genre, Skiffle. Familiar to few, Skiffle music is often played using improvised spirit and music instruments alike. When happening upon the word and musical world of Skiffle, Marshall felt a great kinship between the essence of Skiffle and her own design processes which often involve improvising, playing and exploring different mediums and techniques.
The name of § was influenced by the music genre, Skiffle. Familiar to few, Skiffle music is often played using improvised spirit and music instruments alike. When happening upon the word and musical world of Skiffle, Marshall felt a great kinship between the essence of Skiffle and her own design processes which often involve improvising, playing and exploring different mediums and techniques.