Earth’s Radiation Sets This Matrix of Motors in Motion

Systems, whether biological or technological, are really about interaction, both within themselves and with others. A set of disparate elements comprise one or several complex wholes. In the new installation Order+Noise (Interface I), Berlin-based artist Ralf Baecker explores the boundary between two interacting systems.

Baecker, whose background is in computer science, sets in motion a series of motors, strings and elastic bands by way of random signals from Geiger–Müller tubes (used in Geiger counters), which pick up the natural ambient radiation of the planet. Baecker describes the emerging movements of the mechanized installation as something like a “negotiation process of the two systems.” The interface, which he also calls a boundary surface, is where all elements influence each other, creating an ever-evolving complex movement.

Despite his computer science background, Baecker tells The Creators Project that he is not interested in machines controlled by computers. While he used a Teensy 3.2 microcontroller and desgined circuit boards for Order+Noise (Interface I), Baecker is primarily interested in machine processes that can act as an agent and, in doing so, “produce reality.”

“I consider the controllers, that I use to drive and feed the motors with noise, as a part of the machine and not as something external,” Baecker explains. “I’m not trying to hide or obscure it. In most of my installations, and especially in Interface, I’m researching complex interactions in symbolic systems and how technological images are constructed.”

Baecker says that Order+Noise (Interface I) is based on the idea of self-organization—specifically, the principle called “order from noise.” It’s a principle that applies to markets and even the swarm behavior of birds.

To that end, the installation consists of 96 vertical lines that are connected to 192 motors at its top and bottom. Each of the vertical lines is horizontally connected to three of its neighboring vertical lines through elastic lines. If one of these lines moves, it will have an effect on its neighbors and vice versa.

“The motors are just fed with noise (randomly turning them on or off), no coordinated movements,” Baecker says. “The noise acts as a catalyst, and allows the system of lines and elastic bands to create emergent movements. I consider noise not as a disturbance, but as essential for the creation of change or (re)-organization.”

“My machines don’t separate process and output (screen),” he adds. “The network of threads and rubber bands is where the process is happening. It is display and ‘processor’ at the same time.”

Teaser: Order+Noise (Interface I) from Ralf Baecker on Vimeo.

This isn’t the first time that Geiger-Müller tubes and other “geological sensors” have appeared in Baecker’s work. He likes to use the tube as completely non-deterministic random source (the entropy source) to produce different behaviors. The events they detect are caused by background radiation, or the radioactive decay of atoms, which Baecker says is a complete non-deterministic and unpredictable process.

“Computers can only calculate randomness (pseudo-randomness)—they are made to behave precisely and should deliver repeatable results,” he explains. “For most applications this ‘pseudo-randomness’ is sufficient, but it is somehow hermetic. Using Geiger tubes as a source of chance is an artistic decision not a practical one, it allows me to (re)-connect my machines to the world.”

Order+Noise (Interface I) runs at the Berlin gallery NOME from April 23 to June 18, 2016.

Click here to see more of Ralf Baecker’s work.

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