DECODE- ONEDOTZERO exhibition

During a recent visit to London, i was able to visit the V&A gallery and the ONEDOTZERO exhibition called DECODE.

I was lucky in the timing of the project linking in with the dates in which the exhibition is in London before it heads of to other ends of the world.

The meaning behind the exhibition, the style of the work and the name of the company is based on code. ONEDOTZERO (1.0) is all about the fundamentals of digital work, the binary code that is at the base of everything. This is clear when looking at the exhibition, that all the pieces, interactive or not, are based around the world. This includes a map of flight paths in north america, a digital clock which displays the time through a series of pictures which are uploaded to the sight, allowing audience participation, even a tree which interacts with the audience by detecting foot placement so that the leaves on the floor move when you stand near them.

All the pieces in the exhibition were fascinating and visually exiting however, there is a vast amount i could say about each one so on this basis, i have chosen a few pieces which i felt stood out from the crowd, pieces which were both visually and technically amazing.


Solar by Flight 404. The creator, Robert Hodgin had already created a piece called Solar, much like the one in the exhibition however, ONEDOTZERO approached him and asked if eh could rework the piece so that it was audio responsive.
According to his blog (http://www.flight404.com/blog/) he felt that his usual creative path wouldnt help in this situation, so the music was turned off. He began by making simple noises into a microphone. This soon became tedious and unenjoyable so subsequently scrapped. The answer came about through a call for help on twitter in which many people suggested a podcast called WYNC's Radiolab.

'I took a snippet from the episode entitled “Musical Language” which features a beautiful soundscape created by Jonah Lehrer. In the episode, Jonah and Robert Krulwich are analyzing the notion that sound is “touch, at a distance” '

At the exhibition, i found this piece very personal in an interactive sense as the digital object reacts differently dependent on the volume, tone and pitch. This meant that it was constantly changing between each person interacting with it.

The gentleman infront of me found that Charlie Uniform November Tango was particularly enjoyable to say into the microphone.

Another piece at the exhibition, one which fascinated the masses was a piece called 'Weave Mirror' by Daniel Rozin. i found that this piece was unique as it was the one thing that was visually amazing from the front as well as the back. The participant stands infront of the piece in which a camera is focused on, this image is then relayed through a program which causes hundreds of semi-circles (each shaded dark to light) to react and transpose the image of the person. As the person is being filmed, the image changes if they move.




The reason i loved this piece so much was because you are able to watch the program at work. The back of this piece reveals all the mechanisms working to transpose the image. Each of the semi-circles is controlled separately and this is fascinating to watch.

The exhibition is full of amazing things and i highly suggest that anyone interested in this style or even the company should take some time to have a look.