FUSE:
applied algorithmic decay & controlled experiments in encryption
Prepare for June 5th by listening to the US Constitution, German Constitution, UN Declaration of Human Rights & A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace in states of change and contradiction, embodying the residual & renewable allure of authority and its opposites.
In an age of intensified globalization & the dissolution of the nation-state, where everyday life is increasingly filled with algorithmically-produced substance & sustenance (from computer-produced news stories to targeted advertising to genetically-engineered foodstuffs), institutions & individuals alike look towards encryption and secure deletion as means to safeguard precious information.
But what happens to social survival now as technological intensification & capitalist motives reach new heights in tandem? How does our orientation to the world shift when once-surreptitiously operating hegemonic systems of automation are exposed and explained? How ought our orientation to the world then shift? In such circumstances, are such things as privacy and anonymity attainable?
FUSE uses SuperCollider, an environment and programming language for sound synthesis, to algorithmically apply decay via sound techniques such as waveshaping, folding & spectral manipulation in granular synthesis environments. Each morning begins fresh with clean readings of the primary documents, described by some as inviolable, which then move through gradually enfolding phases of opacity, attempted encryption and encounter algorithm after algorithm.
One such application takes number series based on a secure deletion algorithm called the DoD Method, and uses these to move 'remove' the original sound file. Under the rules of this 'data sanitation method,' the data area is overwritten with 0's, then 1's, then once with pseudorandom data.
This piece's 3-day saga will reach its dramatic/temporary conclusion at N.K. Projekt on June 5 during the Happening.
Original recorded texts prepared by Leslie Dunton-Downer.
http://www.transmediale.de/content/the-magical-secrecy-tour.
Excerpt of 67-hr stream