Final open hours Friday Dec.11, 1-3pm // or by appt this week for one person/pod at a time - please email info@rhizomedc.org to make an appointment.

01101110 is a generative audiovisual installation controlled by a 1-dimensional elementary cellular automata known as rule 110. Rule 110 is special because it is the simplest system that has been proven to be Turing complete. In other words this means that given an infinite number of cells this system is capable of simulating any calculation or computer program. The visual component of this piece is a 2-dimensional timeline of current and previous states of the system, this system is hundreds of cells long and constantly updating and scrolling as the system evolves. The audio is created using the current state of the system to determine a 4-bit waveform which is constantly changing as the automata updates. The waveform is read at speeds that correspond to the frequencies of 8 notes in a scale. They are faded in and out by another small automata only 8 cells long that updates at a much slower rate. Each initial state is determined randomly and the interactions of the automata play out over a period of 10 minutes. It could be said that the viewer is seeing small randomly generated programs being simulated or a space-time diagram of a universe with a single dimension. What becomes apparent is the incredible complexity that can arise from a simple set of rules. Neither stable or chaotic rule 110 is an example of how complex behavior may arise from simple conditions. The visuals reveal a timeline in which different repeating patterns of black and white cells interact. The space, filled with the sound of these interactions, is set to a score also determined by the same rule set and a powerful synesthetic experience is formed.

Ryan Dunn is an interdisciplinary sound artist and MICA alumni currently based in Baltimore Maryland. Their work is experimental and takes on hybrid forms with sound taking a central role. Inspired by artists such as John Cage their work is often generative, with chance operations, randomness, or chaotic systems determining the final audio output. Utilizing a variety of tools including Max/MSP, After Effects, Processing and even hardware modular synthesizers they create rich textural soundscapes that slowly shift over time. If there is a visual component to their work it is often minimal, geometric and always directly tied to the sound being generated.