irregularity

irregularity, conceived for burning life 2009, consists of 1872 identical poles. the poles are arranged so that they form edges of a three-dimensional regular grid of 2.5x2.5 cubes. by omitting cubes and edges, the remaining poles, still organized in a regular grid, form a hollow sphere. thus, constructing the sphere can be conceived as removing those parts of the grid which do not contribute to the shape, like a sculptor carving wood.
initially, the structure is completely symmetric and regular, but becomes more and more irregular over time. each visitor actively participates in this transformation: when avatars fly through the structure and collide with it, the edges touched fall down and the structure temporarily becomes damaged. after a certain time, which depends on how many visitors are present, the edges will start to rise and slowly move back towards their original position. however, they never end up in exact the same position, thus resulting in an accumulative disarrangement of the structure. read also bettina tizzy's NPIRL blog post, poid mahovlich's metanopsis blog (with interview), ana's blog, and michele hyacinth's blog with her picture of the work at the end of burning life after a week full of visitors, showing the avatar-induced distortion of the installation.
a slightly different version was shown at Brooklyn Is Watching and was discussed in podcast 74.
sounds: samples of Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate (performed by Kurt Schwitters, original recording May 5, 1932)