PARTICLE NOISE
2020 - Installation
Ultrasonic Levitator, Laser, Mirror particle, Speaker, Arduino, Lightsensor
Entropy in information theory defines the information content of an event with probabilities: the more probable a state, the greater its entropy.
A closed system is in thermodynamic equilibrium when its entropy is maximum. It is then in its most probable state.
According to information theory, in this state of so called complete disorder a maximum amount of information is transmitted. Random sequences of numbers and white noise usually do not contain any predictable patterns and are therefore not compressible - the information content is higher.
I use my research in entropy and take the general communication system by Claude Shannon as the basis to create this sound light installation. I literally elevate noise (the maximum amount of information) to the message.
In this sound and light installation, sound is modulated into light waves. These light waves travel horizontally through space, but get disturbed by floating particles held up via a sonic levitator. These particles are a literal representation of noise. This disturbed information is turned back into a sound wave, amplified and output into the space and eventually turned back in to a light wave in a loop.
"Information is inevitably tied to a physical representation and therefore to restrictions and possibilities related to the laws of physics and the parts available in the universe." R. Landauer, 1996