net.weight

30.10.07 Deterministic Data

Physicists are now referring to the stuff the universe is made from as ‘information’, as apposed to ‘matter’ which was the favourite for quite some time. This interests me as, of course, information is the very stuff I’m trying to get to grips with in net.weight.

The theory states that the universe is determined by indestructible information. This information is contained within matter - which can be broken down. It’s all described in a lovely article about pushing an elephant into a black hole, and what happens to the poor thing during and, possibly, afterwards. (read the article here)
It’s relevance to net.weight is less cruel. Information cannot be destroyed - does this mean that the volume of information grows? Continually multiplies like bacteria?

I’ve already mentioned that photons (which carry the information of the net) have no, or at least a practically immeasurable, mass. I make the assumption then that this information also takes up a practically immeasurable space. It is only measurable by the information you read from it - or rather, the amount of information it holds i.e. bytes.

According to the Big Bang theory ‘all the matter and energy in the universe was at an immense temperature and density’. All matter? Does this mean that all matter - and therefor all information - already exists in the universe, just hanging around wanting to be discovered and quantified by man?

The Deterministic view would be that yes, all this information had been held there and, at the moment of the Big Bang, got flung out across the expanding universe. Deterministic philosophers would have us believe that the path of this information is already set, that the moment each photon, electron, neutron etc… was released from that infinitely dense mass its direction would determine its fate. Causality would ensure that as particles collide their directions would alter, ensuring they would collide with other particles and so on. John F Sowa suggests that the laws of causality (such as they stand) do not apply to the atomic level - but that it is more a combination of random, semi-random and deterministic conditions.

However, I quite like the idea that everything that exists now always existed (in some form of basic information) from the very beginning of time, and that it has been hurtling towards its end along a path which was decided by its position at the moment of the Big Bang. This could mean that the weight of total information is a constant and a percentage of this is the data of the internet. This percentage changes as the internet grows. Where does the other information go, the information that was lost to make room for a thousand new flickr accounts?

20.10.07 Information Plateau

Is there a limit to human knowledge? Will there come a time when we, collectively, have amassed all the information we can possibly perceive?
Although we are discovering new things all the time, and finding new ways of using things, will there come a point at which we have exhausted our senses (and those senses that we have invented) and we will have detected all we can detect, measured all we can measure and devised all we can devise?
Will this happen, or will we continue to learn - to collect more and more information?
I believe (though not pessimistically) that we will reach a plateau of understanding. this of course will not happen for a good long while yet. We’re capable of adapting and enhancing our senses with technology, and this lets us continue to explore our world. What I foresee happening is a more cerebral problem - that there is a limit to what we can comprehend, a limit to the information we can perceive.

13.10.07 Vigilance

Vigilance is a location-specific installation sited in two vacant shop units at the Duke Street entrance to the mall in Barrow-in-Furness.
The form of the work is derived from the curved bow of the Vigilant, a Vanguard class nuclear submarine built in Barrow.
The intention of the work is to make it appear that the submarine has dropped onto the building. However, instead of demolishing it, the building has adjusted itself to accommodate the shape of the hull.

This work was been produced as part of FRED 2007 in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
28 September - 14 October 2007.
It is also included in VELOCITY, a festival of digital art and culture stretching from Barrow to Lancaster run by Folly.
11 October - 3 November 2007.

The work was produced with financial support from Arts Council England.

Vigilance is a physical manifestation of data collected from the internet (the dimensions of the submarine) with the intention of creating a form with the appearance of mass and the possibility to cause displacement.

04.10.07 VELOCITY

net.weight is to be featured in VELOCITY, an arts festival both online and sited along the coastal rail route around Morecambe Bay.
VELOCITY artists are invited to join the discussion.
More info at: VELOCITY.