The endlessly fascinating thing about early LEGO was its sheer inexhaustible myriad of possibilities. You could not only build the most wonderful mini-houses with the bricks, they were also perfect for creating the most un-LEGO-like objects. In my happy childhood days I managed to construct a functional model of a special lock for an imaginary secret door, which could only be opened by pressing just the right spot, using only rubber bands, ballpoint pen springs and simple LEGO bricks. But LEGO became more and more complex, and life as a child became boring. The new LEGO bricks were put together in kits designed for constructing predefined objects - imagination and creative spirit were no longer required.

A similar experience could be had by visiting the recent exhibition of works by the Frankfurt media design groups MESO and Involving Systems, shown at Linz’s O.K Center as part of the «O.K spektral» series curated by Roland Schöny. The series is devoted to the latest electronic sounds and related visual artistic approaches. It was launched in early April 2003 with an installation called «24!» by Michael Aschauer, Norbert Pfaffenbichler and Lotte Schreiber (http://m.ash.to/24). This initial exhibit, a unified spatial/audio/visual composition, showed the high level at which the fundamental elements of digital data systems can be transformed into sounds and visuals. It was followed by a showing of Anja Krautgasser’s project «IP-III» (http://www.ip-3.org), together with the O.K spektral cinema with music videos from the realm of New Electronics.

The MESO and Involving Systems groups, who are closely interwoven personally, displayed devices and interactive installations that they had programmed, and in some cases also designed, in recent years, in which they likewise wished to demonstrate the variety of possibilities opened up by digital composition. On display was, for example, the «Coverbox,» a PC connected to a television monitor, on which some 500 cover versions of popular songs were stored. Visitors could choose two singers from the list with a mouse click and the device would calculate a route leading from Singer A to Singer B by way of various covered songs and other singers. Then the visitor could listen to the songs thus selected. In «System 2.7» - made up of two modified US Army-issue record player cabinets, two vintage Hewlett Packard monitors, a Power Mac, and quite a diverse selection of music, electronic sounds and language on vinyl - users could choose their own material, mixing it and alienating it electronically while listening. Finally, «Mutable Muzzy Musics» invited up to four users to simultaneously select loops from electronic music pieces that had already been broken apart into their constituent elements and to transform them while playing, thus making their own electronic compositions out of the material provided.

In the exhibition’s main work, the «Heavy Rotation Revisor,» up to four players could pull short samples from ongoing radio programs into a kind of radar circle. The rotating cursor then scanned the samples, creating a repetitive abstract composition that could be changed at any time. But who ever doubted that music could be broken down electronically and remixed in an endless number of ways? The more differentiated the prefabricated parts were, the more vexing it was for the user that they were already so predefined. The creative element inherent in covers, samples, loops and electronic transformation was not subject to discussion here, but simply framed in a museum environment.

The affectionate use of vintage hardware and user interfaces by the MESO and Involving Systems designers only confirms this attitude. Wherein lies the potential here that might serve to expand our horizons? As a pure illustration of facts, these devices were already obsolete as soon as they were built. The MESO and Involving Systems projects are a technically intelligent form of playing with design, the results of which look good with their retro-chic panache. But it would be mistaken to speak here of any relevance in terms of media criticism or even of a pertinent contribution to the discourse.

With this show of works by MESO/Involving Systems the O.K spektral series is now wrapping up its first year in a rather unspectacular way. But the next part of the series promises to be nothing short of glamorous: starting on March 19th Station Rose will be holding court at O.K.

 

Translated by Timothy Jones

 

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