Materials:tape recorders, computer game tapes, computer, monitor,
amplifier,synths, speakers, custom electronics, custom software. Mac G3

"Often abbreviated as GIGO, this is a famous computer axiom meaning that if invalid data is entered into a system, the resulting output will also be invalid. Although originally applied to computer software, the axiom holds true for all systems, including, for example, decision-making systems"
(ref http://www.webopedia.com )

A collection of discarded 80s computer data tapes were used as the data source for a sound installation. Tapes needed to be played on one or more of the 6 tape players. Data was fed into a computer that analysed it and then used it to control several generative sound processes, or switched between different processes. The tapes were placed on the floor and the viewer was able to remove tapes from players and swap them. This was not to make the system into an interactive participatory system; on the contrary, the viewer was blind to the data on the tapes and the process that acted upon this data. The role of the viewer is that of an observer of the output and supplier of the data input cassettes. This puts viewers into a subordinate role quite typical of information workers whose job was to change data tapes of early micro and mainframe systems, or as on modern data entry sweatshops. There is no rewarding mental task required from the viewer to affect this system, just a simple physical task. The system demanded that data had to be continuously feed into the computer, as when no data was being supplied, it remained silent. This demand from the viewer was also shown in the case that playing tapes would come to an end. At this point the screen would start a 30 second count down to then flash "NO DATA". The effect was to make people scramble to eject tapes and replace them with others, so that sound would not stop. If this countdown would come to an end the sound would abruptly stop. When working with information systems, a person is usually in a position of judging whether the output is valid from the given input, and can then decide if the input is invalid. With this work, in which any data input is valid, I have removed this task to further disempowering viewers into a closed automatic system. The data from the tapes was displayed on the screen in a continuous DOS like a scrolling of numerical values. Incoming data also affected processes acting on the display, causing glitchy screen blurs by overlaying data in various shades of green, jerking display coordinates. The working state of the algorithms was also shown, for example, informing the viewer that he or she was changing a process, or that certain global properties had been changed as a result of the data. The green DOS-like aesthetic was chosen as a reference to the interface of the archetypal data processing system, dated from when computers first came into the public sector. This work is examining notions of valid data for computational systems, of data’s demands and of our relation to automatic information processing systems.