An audiovisual installation that investigates the combinatorial possibilities of shapes, memory, and sonic trace-making.

Concept

When observed, L1NK unfolds various set of movements, lights and patterns over the radically reduced grid-space of the installation, generated by repetitive computational processes and algorithms of morphogenesis. The movement of data gives rise to forms, rhythms, and behaviors: it initiates, responds, and carries new meanings in a self-organizing manner. The title points to the entangled nature of a system - where sounds, movements and lights form an inseparable, synchronized structure and they define an associative space of memories and information. Contemporary societies increasingly favour these types of arrangements for memory architectures as opposed to classical, spatial organization models, hence we can see that the primary focus of artificial memory is shifting towards the act of orientation. This emerging sensitivity enables navigation within an environment where wayfinding depends on partial signals, impressions, and hints, rather than full situational knowledge. Such an environment, relative to the participant, may be spatially non-contiguous and temporally asynchronous, where the associations themselves are inherently discontinuous and non-linear. In today’s associative memory culture, the taxonomic relations of structured, scientific classification lose their meaning, and in their place, the operation of orientation creates links and connections between associated elements. This aligns more closely with the workings of human memory, where memories persist not as ordered categories but as networks of relations. Such a mode of storage can evoke unexpected links and emergent meanings, allowing artificial memory to function not merely as a static archive but as a dynamic, living system.

Sonic Patterns

The layout of these low-level memory patterns consists of a series of algorithmically generated scenes, each defined by multiple parameters that are adjusted in real time. This process explores the range of possibilities within a given parameter space. The scenes are then sequenced one after another, connected by smooth graphical transitions, forming a distinct visual language rooted in pattern research, drawing on low-level image structures, glitch aesthetics, morphogenesis, and combinatorics. The sequence itself is governed by a first-order Markov chain, incorporating weighted probabilities and elements of randomness. As a result, the final output is never the same: the probabilistic structure produces different paths, variations, and occasional repetitions within the sequence. The scenes are also accompanied by sound: movement, energy, and visual elements are translated into audio through sonification, using raw synthesis modules such as sine waves, band-pass filters, and noise. Upon operation, the sounds turn graphical changes into audible events through a mixture of digital crackles, rhythmic clicks, and harmonic drone textures, sonifying the apparatus itself; they are not musical in the traditional sense but serve more as an energetic apparatus.

The compositions are made from four small 64×64 LED matrices with accompanying speakers, mounted on transparent plexi glas panels. Each element of the installation is composed of a set of points on a grid, where each point carries two possible states—the presence or absence of information, reminiscent of early memory storage devices, like punch cards or optical recording machines. The patterns of these binary structures are generated by algorithms from classical examples of morphogenesis: cellular automaton, space-filling growth patterns, noise and simple binary operations (XOR, AND, etc).

The appearance of the work draws on early scientific experiments, like Chladni’s visualizations of sound or Daphne Oram’s Oramics Machine, reinterpreted through a digital framework of logic, mapping, and code. Combined with sonification, the LED displays act as ontological machines: each glowing LED pixel behaves as an autonomous particle within a larger system, instead of being a component for traditional image-making. Each unit is controlled by its own microcomputer, which selects from pre-programmed sets of movements. The displays are synchronized by a shared clock signal through a local wireless network, which makes it possible for each audiovisual module to respond to one another, complementing, amplifying, or counterpointing each other, capable of showing animations across distances that can even resemble quantum states like superposition and entanglement.

Operation

The installation runs on open source software, there is no environmental footage of any AI system and distance data centers. It is using open source hardware components and Linux operating system, the computational costs are kept to minimal. The LED lighting technologies are energy efficient, and their transparent, modular aesthetics help in raising awareness in the complexity of our multilayered technological stack by showing alternatives on how one can build custom hardware modules with custom software.