Heather Gordon » 8-bit classics http://www.heather-gordon.com Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:24:41 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 8-bit classics http://www.heather-gordon.com/2009/12/18/8-bit-classics/ http://www.heather-gordon.com/2009/12/18/8-bit-classics/#comments Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:08:38 +0000 hgordon http://www.heather-gordon.com/?p=355 Text from classic works of literature is converted to 8-bit binary strings and plotted in ink on chart paper. This process creates a common visual language and structure for the textual data. Although the text content is visualized using a method or “algorithm” and therefore readable, the meaning remains illegible and the viewer is rendered illiterate.

What fascinates me about these works is the representational nature of their production. Discernible content is predictably represented in a legible process, and yet the artwork appears abstract and even nonrepresentational. Without a key or cipher, the value of information can be inaccessible, illegible, and meaningless. In our current digital age, access to and control of information is of critical relevance.
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