Binary Deconstruction
16/12/2021
WORLD
Storing, encoding, and decoding information is one of humanity’s most profound inventions. From notched bones to clay tablets and parchment scrolls, early civilizations created tools to preserve memory, track actions, and extend thought across time.
Binary Deconstruction takes inspiration from these early forms of physical data encoding to rethink what a storage device can be today. Instead of files, servers, or cloud systems, this project uses sculptural form as a medium of memory.
The process encodes live biometric information from the audience into intricate geometric sculptures. Each sculpture is the result of a generative process driven by the unique information about the person's physical identity.
DATA HARVESTER
Biometric data (face geometry, finger print, eye color) is captured by a custom-built robotic device designed specifically for this installation. More than a sensor, the machine performs the act of data extraction as a choreographed gesture. The machine makes the process of data collection visible and perceptible by incorporating motion, light, and sound.
These elements are not decorative, but functional: they externalize what is usually hidden, allowing the audience to witness the mechanics of biometric extraction as it happens. The interface becomes an expression of the spectacle of surveillance made tangible, where the machinery of identity extraction is no longer hidden, but staged.
By turning the act of scanning into a performative event, the device reframes surveillance as something not only seen but felt. The audience is no longer a passive observer but implicated in the loop as both subject and witness. This shift repositions data capture as an encounter, where the aesthetics of the machine are inseparable from its function.
SCENOGRAPHY
Resembling a factory assembly line, the ensemble of the data scanning device, Generator, and 3D printers brings the entire generative process to the foreground. From code to final form, each stage is made visible from the extraction of biometric data to its algorithmic translation and material fabrication. Rather than hiding the computational labor behind seamless outputs, the installation exposes it as an active, embodied sequence. This transparency invites viewers to witness how identity becomes geometry, and how code becomes object.
GENERATOR
This intimate physiological information is not stored in standard digital formats but translated through a three-dimensional lexicon into spatial geometries. Each resulting sculpture is a personalized archive: a unique form generated from the body’s own markers. The process transforms transient physical presence into a durable mnemonic artifact, one that encodes not just identity, but the experience of the encounter itself.
SCULPTURES
The system is part of Calin Segal’s ongoing research into sculptural storage formats, which investigates how information can be embedded directly into material form rather than represented through abstract symbols. In this framework, the generative process treats aesthetic qualities such as curvature, density, and surface variation as carriers of data.
Credits
Manufacturing Hardware Nono Labs
Supporting institution V2-Media lab
Developed during the Realities in Transition residency
Back end developer Hector Puttier
Concept Design, Software Development and Production - InDialog Team