IPzentrum


' TXTD.sign TXTD.sign

The IPzentrum project is based upon considerations concerning the interpretation of earthquakes as one of the elementary forms of expression of our planet. Equally decisive factors were the depiction of the underlying principle of such local events produced by global causes by means of the network of seismographic stations set up to observe them, as well as the intention to enable individual observation within this matrix of events and perceptions.

The internet-based installation consists of a reciprocally generating event system. Event-synchronous data received on earthquakes control the pressure intensity of an sonic field which develops in a [resonation] space. The states of stress experienced by visitors to the installation [resonators] who are being stimulated by this pressure intensity are measured and fed back to the system as additional control data [informational tremor] through a channel of communication [about the events] and the disturbances to it. Communication and its disruption, restoration and severance are likewise data-generated events that influence the process.

As a rule, earthquakes occur as a result of massive subterranean shifts. Most of their energy is released as heat resulting from friction; only a small percentage is transformed into seismic energy and transmitted as wave-like vibrations. Even if earthquakes are local events, the release of kinetic energy nevertheless represents the phenomenology of the planetary body as a whole. On the average, an earthquake with a magnitude of 3 on the 9.0 [basically open-ended] Richter Scale takes place somewhere in the world every ten minutes. Weaker tremors occur even more frequently.

The internet is a suitable "tool" to carry out the tasks of global seismology. Along with the seismometer and seismograph as their core technology, modern digital seismographic stations consist of a processor dedicated to data collection and feature internet link-up. Although these link-ups are "sub-networks" or "special networks," the data is available through open channels to the general public in, more or less, real time.

The existence of a worldwide network for the observation of earthquakes is value-generated; it has come about due to and in expectation of catastrophes affecting human life and property. In the face of such a threat, global observation, in as close to real time as possible, is a pressing concern not only from the perspective of civilization; rather, it is also conclusive in the sense of the phenomenology of the event. In this case, the Internet serves to compile and distribute data on a global phenomenon and not the global compilation of a local phenomenon.

The event-generated [since it operates in real time] informational structure thus represents the events about which it provides information. This equation suggests the interpretation of global kinetic energy as informational energy.

The "Ipzentrum" project is based upon this interpretation and its prerequisite assumptions as a treatment of, on one hand, the issue of the subjective preconditions of perception, classification, evaluation and functionalization [use] of various forms of energy, and, on the other, the principle of the mediatized perception of the environment, as a result of which data and information are interpreted as the environment [and its condition with respect to energy].

To hyperbolize to some extent: most fundamental is the assumption that in a culture in which the primary perception of events occurs under conditions of mediatization, events are perceived as not being real [namely, not affecting one's own existence] as long as those media through which the information is disseminated are themselves unaffected by those events. Catastrophes do not exist as long as the reporting about them continues. Therefore, IPzentrum can be considered a test installation whose objective is to raise the level of reality of information by means of a linkage to the individual actually perceiving information about events and the triggering possibilities which have thus been opened up to that individual.

The possibilities of communication on various stages with one another which have been implanted here, analogous to extractable principles of natural processes and their subjective evaluation, can be defined as three causal principles:

Störung [disruption]
Ent-Störung [restoration]
Zer-Störung [severance]

1. The area of reception of international earthquake data from the network and its configuration into sonic waves for the purpose of the stimulation of stress on the part of the visitors to the resonation space.
   
   The causal factor here is not the Internet itself [that would be trivial in this case], but rather the network-based structure of seismographic measuring stations distributed throughout the world.
   
   The resonation space is a sensual-psychological interface between both structures of communication [which, in turn, constitute interfaces between the material confrontations of the human body/human property with earthquakes.]
   
   A sub-bass speaker system is set up beneath the resonation space to fill it with low frequency [sub-bass: 16 to 70 Hertz] sound. The activation of the system takes place by means of the data originating from the respective event areas.
   
   The resonation space is equipped with a biofeedback system, whereby a monitor optically displays the heightened psycho-physical state of individuals [resonators] present in it. Such changes of state are brought about by individuals present in the resonation space or, more precisely, their perception of the body as a resonator and the state in which they find themselves as a result thereof, from which a measurement of the "deformation" of the Web data can ultimately be obtained.



2. The area of configuration as a result of the data gathered on states of stress in informational tremors which has an effect upon the communication [and the communicators] about this effect.
   
   A Web site thematically oriented toward the body and property has been set up as a culmination point and communications interface. Its reception is potentially active – on one hand, by means of informational tremors; on the other hand, through users accessing the web pages, whose textual structure is earthquake-sensitive. Each earthquake server contacted is assigned its own page, whose entropy is dependent upon the reactions of visitors to the resonation space. This means that beyond certain specified data values – for example, the sum of sensual-physical perception and/or Web site activity and/or actual earthquake data – a [temporary] disruption occurs in the accessing user's sphere of activity. Web site user access "hits" function in a way that brings order to the disrupted Web activity. The magnitude of this order-enhancing information, transformed into "anti-earthquakes," is superimposed with real earthquakes representing disorder – tantamount to a destructive interference.
   
   These Web site activities produce parameters which influence the data on informational tremors and thus have subsequent effects upon the resonance space. In this way, users are capable of minimizing the effects of actual earthquakes upon visitors to the resonance space.



3. The area of configuration as a result of the type of effects upon communication [and communicators] of the data gathered into informational tremors for the purpose of modulation of data having to do with actual earthquakes with effects upon the stress-stimulating sonic waves.
   
   The data collected from the events taking place in the respective areas is transmitted in accordance with real earthquakes to the configuration program in order to control the output level of the sound generator. Due to the fact that sound is produced exclusively in the low frequency range, it is perceived less as a tone audible to the ear than as a pressure felt by the body.

FUNDAMENTAL TECHNICAL STRUCTURE

1. the stream of actual earthquake data. The data received from the earthquake server is distributed by means of this stream. Controlling Client is a data evaluator; Joined Clients are sound and biofeedback converters.


2. the biofeedback stream. Controlling Client is the biofeedback converter, Joined Client is the WWW server which receives the biofeedback-generated earthquake data with the accompanying information about the location of an actual earthquake.


3. the repair stream. Controlling Client is the WWW server; Joined Client is the sound converter. The quality of the repair of text pages is exchanged in eq-proto format through this stream.