Michael Rodemer was born October 16, 1953, in Springfield, Illinois. At 17 he started his artistic and literary activities. In 1977 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and German from the Michigan State University, in 1984 a Master of Arts degree in Comparative Literature from the Pennsylvania State University and in 1986 a Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from Ohio State University. Since 1990 he had numerous exhibitions, including an exhibition at the Roberta Kuhn Gallery, Columbus 1988, and the Art Ware, Hannover 1990.

The artwork "A Remembrance of the Victims of National Socialism" depends on the use of capabilities peculiar to the computer: the machine coordinates a complex of actions, intended by the artist, over a period of time that exceeds the demands that could reasonably be made on the patience and stamina of human performers. The sequences of "speech" can be orchestrated via the program, continually, 24 hours a day, theoretically for years and years. This temporal aspect of the computer's activity lends the artwork a conceptual depth and credibility it would not possess if made, say, with a tape recording in a repeating loop that played the same numbers again and again.

Visitors entering the central space of the memorial activate the production of spoken numbers and phrases; as they remain longer within the space, the program reacts by increasing the loudness of the sounds. Clearly the most important interaction is, however, that between the voices heard and the visitor's consciousness: it is hoped that a number of small chain reactions may be set in motion by the visitors engaging their minds in deciphering and experiencing the artwork, chain reactions that could have repercussions outside the space of the memorial, in our private, public, and political lives.

One of the reasons the computer as a medium appeals to me is its potential to be used to transcend the single, immutable Gestalt of traditional media. Thus one can, in arranging a program's (the artwork 's) parameters, shape aesthetic experiences that develop over time, using the complexity and flexibility of a computer program to mitigate the repetitiousness of much "machine art". I feel it is important, however, that the changes over time and the interactivity possible through the computer are not, by default, of a random, purposeless sort, unless the artwork specifically has randomness as its subject. I believe that the computer can be used to communicate not merely information, but meaning and emotion and intentions and insights. It is up to artists to do this.