Marko Timlin
BITS AND BYTES is a large-scale kinetic sound installation consisting of 104 floppy disk drives. This art project links science with art, technology with nature and the past with the present.
The installation’s sonic outcome is generated solely by the mechanical motions of the 3,5” floppy disk drives controlled by arduino microprocessors. The audible frequency of each floppy disk drive can be regulated in real-time resembling a choir of 104 independent voices creating highly complex sonic textures and pulsations.
BITS AND BYTES could also be described as a “robotic instrument” combining the precision of the digital world with the chaotic nature of the physical world.
This art project is based on the following principles and ideas:
• “Technology won’t take control as long as man can misuse it.” (a quote from Finnish inventor Erkki Kurenniemi)
• the artistic misuse of technology
• the resuscitation of obsolete technology from the 1980s and 1990s into a new artistic life
• connecting the digital domain with the physical world
• the joy of exploring technology and radically alienating it
• the poetry of machine music
Marko Timlin is a Finnish-German artist creating artworks that link science with art, technology with nature and the past with the present. His artistic work centers on the technical, aesthetic and philosophical development of kinetic sound sculptures, dynamic light installations, performances with self-made sound machines and multimedia theater plays. He is at the same time seeker, musician, performer, sculptor, poet, but also craftsman, and stage director.
Timlin’s works have been exhibited and performed world-wide including at Whitebox New York (USA), Sight & Sound Festival Montréal (CA), Fylkingen Stockholm (SE), Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma Helsinki (FI), Mal au Pixel Paris (FR), E:vent gallery London (UK), MIMstuudio Tallinn (EST), Neues Museum Nürnberg (DE), Espoo Museum of Modern Art (FI), Digital Media Festival Valencia (ES), EMTRCC Nanchang (CN), Lofoten Sound Art Symposium (NO) and Pori Art Museum (FI).