Roar

Roar is an audiovisual experience. It offers a poetic interpretation of cataclysmic events: the earth is ripping apart and its inhabitants must escape in space towards a new home. Geopolitical data is formatted into a kind of DNA code used by the system to generate the different 3D spaceship models for each nation. The voyage is punctuated by random events to create a narrative – ships colliding, programmed obsolescence, on-board mutinies, etc. Instead of using pseudorandom generators to control these events, probabilities are based on social statistics and the outcomes on real random atmospheric noise – linking real space with virtual space. The simulation is run on a persistent server for a fixed amount of time at the end of which the voyage will be considered complete. But will any ships have survived till then? As its previous inhabitants flee it, discontinued earth continues to crumble away. The crumbling accelerates or decelerates in synchronicity with real-time seismic data. The project is presented on two different screens with the roar of the earth crumbling on one side and the roar of the ships fleeing on the other, and addresses the use of meaningful data in digital art.