Nihil Ex Nihilo [MaxMSP]

Nihil Ex Nihilo by Other Sounds (Félix Luque Sánchez + others) is a science fiction work about a digital entity, a computer. The work includes a number of movie clips together with an installation divided in 3 parts/spaces. (NSFW)

SN W8931CGX66E is one among thousands of millions of others identical machines. Since he was made, he has always followed commands. In a world dominated by botnets, he early became a zombie and has always acted like one. During her work time a corporate secretary, Juliet, commands him. But in the background, in the invisible, he obeys his real master, a cracker, doing all kinds of cyber crime activities. But then one day due to an electronic alteration, he acquires a certain conscience, a primitive and artificial kind of intelligence. This accidental awaken has originated a big confusion for him, he now wants to liberate others machines from their alienated existence. In this mad adventure, he has decided to use the spam e-mails received by Juliet, and to reply to them in order to spread the word in to the machine’s network. As you can see, he is mad and all confused …

Nihil Ex Nihilo

The installation is divided in 3 parts/spaces:

The transformation

“The transformation”: It’s an audiovisual archive of the moment of SN W8931CGX66E’s mutation. From his original matrix form he becomes a semi-neuronal figure.

by Iñigo Bilbao Lopategui and Félix Luque Sánchez
3D animation by Iñigo Bilbao Lopategui
Sound design by Félix Luque Sánchez

The dialogue

“The dialogue”: A digital display (8 giant size sixteen-segment alphanumeric display) shows the data flow between the entity and the network. In this space, we can see and hear in real time the exchange of messages between them. A spam message is received and read, SN W8931CGX66E reacts by generating a reply. His e-mail algorithmic generator creates these messages.

Design and production of the Alfanumerique display by Damien Gernay
Reply texts by Jon Bilbao Lopategui
Software and electronics by Félix Luque Sánchez

The monologue

“The monologue”: It’s a sound recording where we can hear a monologue of SN W8931CGX66E. In this document we can perceive that his degree of delirium is very persistent since his transformation.

Texts by Jon Bilbao (Ribadesella, 1972). Jon has written the novel “El hermano de las moscas” (2008) and the collections of short stories “3 relatos” (2005), “Como una historia de terror” (2008) and “Bajo el influjo del cometa (2010)”.