CONCERNING TIME
Venice Bienale
Location: Venice
Year: 2008
Client: Architecture Bienale
Type: Cnceptual
An interdisciplinary installation based on spatial-geographical information concerning population growth and building in mixed cities in Israel This work seeks to examine Israeli urban reality by means of data concerning local activity; it employs an analytic, aesthetic and non-judgmental approach, and touches upon themes such as sustainable development, multiculturalism, urbanisation and local identity.
These subjects are all highly significant to the shaping of the reality in Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East; nevertheless, at times the surplus of activity on the ground, as well as the viewer’s emotional state, limits his ability to choose a vantage point from which to observe things.
This work examines the history of data from three different perspectives — a chronological one (pastpresent-future), a spatial one (different trajectories form different histories) and a technological one (the history of data manipulation); at the same time, it is shaped by two temporal scales — a fast one (the scale of real time, which lacks memory) and a slow one (analytic time, which includes memory).
The installation employs demographic data in order to construct a theoretical model for spontaneous expansion in crowded urban areas in Israel. These are areas whose capacity for expansion is normally limited by territorial restrictions, conservation policies or other reasons. This data is fed into a custom-built sound program, where it is transformed into a musical composition. The analysis of different historical and temporal perspectives is subsequently used to generate the composition of different musical layers, timbral transformations and spatial movements transmitted through an array of speakers.
The resulting spectrum is in turn used as the basis for the sculptural work and drawings. In this manner, the layers of geographical data are detached from their spatial coordinates, transformed into layers of sound, and then represented as a layered topography within the exhibition space. When combined, the visual and sound works present a topology of historical data: the sound embodies a vibrant local reality of constant transformation and change (the fast time scale), while the visuals embody the slow metamorphosis of reality (the slow time scale). Together, they enable visitors to freely reflect, absorb and examine different viewpoints before moving on.
