Art & Technology #15: Julius Popp

Fragments of data generated in and floating around the Internet, or the digital space, are simply facts or lists of facts to those who do not recognize them as more. In Bit.Series, Julius Popp applies a statistical algorithm he designed to this data. A bot, or software that collects data based on this algorithm, then shows a group of words extracted according to frequency of exposure on a news feed, which is then processed to form meaningful secondary data, or information.
Bits, the minimum unit of data, compose data which is processed to form words, the pieces of information. These words are expressed by control software through ejector nozzles, both of which are designed by the artist, in forms and arrangements of physical basic units such as droplets or cubes.
Among the series, Bit.Fall is the most representative work. The iteration Bit.Fall.Pulse is a structure made of containers piled four tiers high to present a spectacular scene.

Popp says that he became interested in the information relationship between the environment and humans from the experiences of his native Germany during the Cold War years, in which different cultures were cultivated in two regions using the same language. The ephemeral nature of the water droplet-formed words implies information confined to a specific moment, after which its value might transform into different meanings. A certain word might be a major keyword one day, but its value lessens as other words take its place over time. The artist focuses on how people produce and consume information, as well as society’s length of cycle of interest. He created an environment in which one can actually see the state of information that is selectively filtered and proffered by media systems within an information society. There, we can experience the current situation, where we accept information without self-recognition and are overwhelmed by the speed and amount of inflow.

Today, information is produced in every corner of society such as media organizations. Individuals, too, create data. It is normal to have at least one mobile device, whether it is a smart phone, a laptop, a tablet, or wearable devices like the Apple Watch or Fitbit. These various devices create a massive amount of data that could not have been imagined in the past, recording every behavior and processing every search, selection and purchase. Our destinations, consumer patterns, distances traveled and even our human pulses are transformed into quantities of data.
Oxford professor of philosophy and information ethics Luciano Floridi has suggested the notion of an info sphere, or a global environment that consists of digital information. In this info sphere, our lives are formed entirely dependent on digital information. However, what remains important is the human component, the main agents of production and consumption of information. Everything on social media and the Internet can be analyzed and collected by its bits. Everything can be information. In this day and age, when the amount of information has become vast beyond our perception, it is vital for us to recognize the way we produce and consume, in addition to understanding the system in which this cycle circulates. The works of Julius Popp provide an opportunity to think twice about the ambivalent nature of the information today and its weight on us, who must oversee, manage and accept this information as active players in an information-oriented world. ■ with ARTINPOST

Julius Popp graduated from the Academy of the Visual Arts Leipzig in Germany, and has participated in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art (2008), the Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon (2008), the Victoria and Albert Museum (2009) and the ZKM (2015). He also created a major Bit.Fall installation in commemoration of the London 2012 Summer Olympics. Existing on the border between science and art, Popp’s work focuses on the natural characteristics of information and the study of the mutual relationship between humans and information in the digital age.