NOT TO SCALE


' Kunst Raum Goethestraße Kunst Raum Goethestraße / 'Herman Chong Herman Chong / 'Isabelle Cornaro Isabelle Cornaro / 'Daniel Kluge Daniel Kluge

NOT TO SCALE is a space in Ars Electronica 2003 where the word “code” is taken for granted and the terms “life, art and law” are translated into different sets of meanings. Developed by Isabelle Cornaro, Heman Chong and Daniel Kluge, NOT TO SCALE sets itself up to interpret the festival’s theme in an alternative fashion, locating the works both inside and outside of the conventions of technology and art by way of metaphorical and poetic workings.

Isabelle Cornaro will be presenting a Quest for Reality, where reality occurs through abstract codes and laws. Lawyers, members of the armed forces, policemen, politicians or businessmen are the representatives of a social order which are defined by abstract laws. Often, they might even be the ones who define these laws, inventing them or imposing them. At the same time, they are submitted to external codes. By inserting real people belonging to these social categories and interviewing them in the public space of the KunstRaum, Cornaro seeks to create an enquiry into real characters, evolving in a real space. They will be asked about their social status, as representatives of powerful institutions, which subtly affects the image they have of themselves and also about the notions of authority and charisma that goes with their social function, and its external representation through a coded dressing.

In Heman Chong and Daniel Kluge’s Adventure Code: The ACI/SCI worlds of Sierra On-Line, the 2 artists have chosen to explore a fraction of code in time, specifically from 1980 to1999. Through the games produced by Oakhurst based game company Sierra On-Line as a basis for thought on consumerism, miniature worlds and nostalgia, the work can be seen both as research on commercial coding and the world of adventure gaming. Between the imagined realities of King’s Quest, Police Quest, Space Quest, Quest for Glory and Leisure Suit Larry, what occurs is a marketplace—communities consuming and developing ancient code. Is code a cultural commodity, similar to collectables like books or stamps or art? What equips code with this status? How is this sheltered from the conditions of acceleration and progress, the core idea behind technology?