test pattern

test pattern is a system that converts any type of data (text, sounds, photos and movies) into barcode patterns and binary patterns of 0s and 1s. Through its application, the project aims to examine the relationship between critical points of device performance and the threshold of human perception.

In this first edition of the project, an audiovisual installation, test pattern involves a sequence of tests for machines and humans, comprising visual patterns converted and generated from sound waveforms in real–time.

The installation comprises eight computer monitors and sixteen loudspeakers aligned on the floor in a dark space. The eight rectangular surfaces of the screens flicker intensely with black and white images, floating and convulsing in the darkness. Sixteen–channel sound signals are mapped as a grid matrix, passing through and slicing the space sharply. Through a real–time computer programme, the signal patterns are converted into eight barcode patterns, which are tightly synchronised. The velocity of the moving images is ultra-fast, some hundreds of frames per second at certain points, providing a performance test for the devices and a response test for visitors’ perceptions.

As part of this project, and driven by the same concept, test pattern CD was released on the raster-noton label on 25 February 2008.

Commissioned by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM)

Photos: Ryuichi Maruo, courtesy of Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM)

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