"Connected Dots". 2023, Brooklyn, NY. An audio visual installation that implements a set of gear wheels in motion, visualizes only dots for each wheel and triggers analog synthesizer modules on interaction of the gear wheels.

“Technology is no mere means. Technology is a way of revealing. If we give heed to this, then another whole realm for the essence of technology will open itself up to us. It is the realm of revealing, i.e., of truth” says Martin Heidegger in the 1954 essay "The question concerning technology".

This is why technology is apriori. It is not something we invented, there is no 'innovation' in the sense of creating reality from nothing. It is a realm of truth that we slowly discover through practice and consequence.

This piece, that I name Connected Dots, is an execution of that revealing. What you see on the screen are dots in motion, but what you don't see, what is hidden beneath the surface, is a strict gear wheel system.

I could have shown you the gears. I could have made the 'hardware' visible. But instead, I chose to show you the tension between the movement and the mechanism.

Technology is not something we just invent, it’s something we come to know through practice and consequence. By following the movement of these dots, we begin to 'discover' the underlying gears. We stay present to the consequence of the protocol.

This is a way of being with technology, not standing outside it. It’s less about control and more about staying present to the truth of the system.

Concept, Code and Sound by Hans Steinbrecher with Openframeworks, Max for Live (Ableton Live) and Plates by Mutable Instruments. With helpful feedback by Marco Zamarato and Zach Lieberman.

Analytically this work is guided by Boris Groys’ thoughts on Aestehtization, Martin Heidegger’s The Question Concerning Technology and Alex Galloway’s The Interface Effect. Please feel free to use the youtube link as reference in your work.