Aram Bartholl's ‘
Random Screen’ is a simple and playful art project that comments on the paraphernalia and ultimately on the effects of technology. Aram Bartholl presents one more declination of his series of works based on very low tech pixel screens. This piece does not stand out because of its particular novelty.
It is, on the contrary, a sort of direct heritage of many projects from the 60’s and 70’s and uses its own technological obsolescence to leave us with a smile on our face. It consists of a set of 5 x 5 pixels (each pixel 12 x 12 cm) and works thermo- dynamically. A tea candle inside of a modified beer can lightens and controls each individual pixel. The rising heat of the candle causes the beer can to rotate and this movement turns the pixel on and off. Thus the frequency and brightness of the pixels depend upon the rotation of the cans. The artist himself wrote that "the pixels become independent and fire goes digital."
With the assimilation of digital apparatuses into our daily lives, 'Random Screen' is not making any controversial statements on the relationship between low and high tech, but is simply making us look around at our everyday actions. Taking us by surprise, this work uses our familiarity with certain codes to underline the power of simple, autonomous and subtractive processes. (transmediale.07 jury statement)
