8:27 p.m. 5.Sep.99
Linz, Austria

"Live and Direct," the early MC mantra, is beginning to take on new
meaning on day 3 of Ars Electronca, especially among the profusion of
impromptu web-based radio broadcasts at the Open X forum from where I
type. It's a jungle in here to say the least, and the feng shui of the
joint is positively humming with the din of Gregorian chants, corporate
sponsor infomercials, and the constant whir and buzz of the latest
Serbian anti war dispatch on B92net.radio. Pirate transmissions never
sounded so good-or so graphically enhanced for that matter.

Brett Stallbaum of C5, a San Jose, California based artist collective,
provided a rare moment of clarity when I sat down with him to discuss
his "16 Sessions" project originally commissioned for the Walker Art
Center's exhibition "Shock of the View." C5 specializes in the growing
field of "information mapping"-in this case, taking algorithmic code and
assigning it human characteristics.

Users grasp and manipulate a 6 sq. inch clear acrylic cube with a
high-res motion tracking system. As the cube moves in a free-flowing
fashion, motion data across x,y,z coordinates is recorded and depicted
on a Silicon Graphics workstation. Each "sample" as it is defined,
consists of one interaction beginning with the cube being picked up and
ending with the cube being set down. The results are then mapped and
assigned an "agency" or personality profile. Imagine a handwriting
sample, but instead of an analysis of script on a page, "16 Sessions"
provides a more physical, more spatialized range of motion, and hence, a
more accurate gauge of a user's true identity.

Agencies come in 4 flavors, 8 short of the 12 Jungian archetypes, but
right up there with the 4 sales types given in any corporate personality
test. Following the introvert/extrovert behavioral model, agencies run
the spectrum of loner, blossom, spread, and fold. For instance, a
graphic depiction of a loner resembles a simple line hinting that the
typical loner is more reserved and less likely to aggressively
manipulate the cube. Blossom or spread, on the other hand, are vibrantly
coiled spirographs, in synch with a more expansive juggling experience,
and hence more bubbly persona.

"16 Sessions" is indicative of the coupling of 3-D topographic systems
with human expressive modes leading to what Stallbaum describes as C5's
focus on the "ontology of information," or the way in which data
behaves. It's reassuring to know that while video artists are conflating
the landscape with the mediascape, the topographic with the ambient hum
of industrial machinery, net artists are searching farther
afield–uncovering complex strings that reveal our existential core,
rather than our Technicolor surfaces.

+ + +

Brett Stalbaum responds:

I do want to clarify that 16 sessions is a c5 research project that
involves contributions from all c5 shareholders, and that the data was
collected from Not to See a Thing by Joel Slayton. Full documentation
can be found at the Walker Art Center.