database

de Souza e Silva, A., & Winkler, F. (2002). <strike>database</strike>. In Proceedings of SIGraDi: VI Ibero-American Congress of Digital Graphics / Arte y Diseño Digital (pp. 2014-2017). Caracas, Venezuela.

Abstract: This paper is a theoretical essay on the installation database. database is an electronic reading device that deals with the inversed functionality of three technologies: a printer, a video-camera and a database. Consequently, it raises issues about the erasure of text, the act of reading in real time (i.e., listening to a printed text), and physical databases. We challenge the idea of databases as non-linear and digital structures, and printers as output devices as well as information recorders. The installation deals with the opposition between presence vs. absence, recording vs. erasing, memory vs. forgetfulness, present vs. continuous time, and reading vs. listening. These concepts are connected with the idea of present time as a time that is always passing by.