"TURBULENCE" is a type of futuristic natural history museum made visible through the synergetic combination of mind and machine - a document of a type of life that exists only within the abstract pluriverse of computational space. The installation operates within an enclosed circular space and is decorated to resemble a strange natural history museum. Projected animation from a video laserdisc covers an entire wall within the space and is controlled via a small touch screen interface.
Viewers of the installation enter an enclosed, darkened space, via two circular concentric walls. Along the walls are specimen jars that contain preserved examples of biological life
- flowers, insects, organs, photographs, the components of living organisms. Many of these objects relate in some way to the video sequences on the disc. The jars are dimly illuminated internally. The middle of the space contains a small plinth facing the projection screen. The plinth contains a touch screen, which controls the playing of video segments from a laserdisc. What is seen by the person interacting with the work depends upon selections made on the touch screen. Words and images float and spiral on the touch screen. Touching on a word usually results in a section of animation being played from the laserdisc (on to the projection screen). Colletions of animated segments are grouped both thematically and by imaginary “species”, with linkage through their genetic relatives. It is important to rembember that all the organisms are fictions, evolved by a software program during production of the project.


Technical Background

HW: SGI, Macintosh
SW: Custome Software

Jon McCormack (AUS) studied animation at the Swinburne Film & Television School (Melbourne, Australia). He has developed artist's computer software. His work examines and interprets nature and natural systems through computer algorithms. Currently a lecturer in Computer Science at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.