media

13/06/2019

Clot Mag

contesting computing

The Distinction Machine in its most basic form is an experimentation on the language of machines. Not necessarily the language of code, which we use to communicate and work with computers, but a foreign one that humans may intrinsically not understand. Artist and designer Kim Albrecht is able to shore up this language through his experimental approach to data visualisation. In the Distinction Machine, one views glitchy psychedelia of imagery. Colour and pattern wave back and forth as it represents an error within the computer’s deterministic logic. When tasked with an action of rendering two colours in the same position, deterministic logic decides to create intricate patterns that move in strange and unexpected ways. As if the colours are oscillating between each other in an incomprehensible way, Albrecht is keen on allowing the audience to feel its strangeness and foreignness.