Gabey Tjon a Tham

If/Then
If/Then
If/Then
If/Then

The place

Grand Manège

Language

English

Hours and dates

  • From 10am to 6pm daily
SPONSORED BY
Ambassade des Pays-Bas

Gabey Tjon a Tham researches the complex systems that occur both in nature and in our digital world and how they affect each other through ever evolving processes. These principles are explored through audiovisual installations that are balancing between virtual and analog realities.

By acquiring cross-disciplinary knowledge in the natural sciences and computer science she finds connections between the natural and artificial in our anthropocentric environment. Her artistic practice revolves around the question: How natural is nature in our current time ?

Gabey Tjon a Tham

If/Then

Every day we are surrounded by machines and technological systems that have their own internal clocks. If/Then seeks to make sense of these mathematical time systems contained in the technological systems we daily interact with. As humans we perceive time in a subjective and fluid way, while computer time and rules are measurable in strict miniaturised sequences and programmed units.

If/Then proposes a fluid interpretation of algorithmic software architecture speculating on the wave and particle duality, one of the fundamentals of quantum mechanics that states that at a fundamental level reality consists of two essences instead of one (1) or the other (0), as in our current digital binary system. The installation invites the viewer to observe the mixed substance as a particle or wave. Two wave machines are interconnected by means of a sensor that reads the movement of the wave on the other side of each machine. Water is used as a chaos element to generate random data. A self-directing dialogue is created of hydrogen bubbles, waves in water, sound recordings from rain and individual water droplets.

Credits

Commissioned by : FIBER

Supported by : Crossing Parallels (TodaysArt & TU Delft), Stroom and the Creative Industries Fund NL

Software design & development : Marcus Graf, Pandelis Diamantides, Amr Ranneh

Special thanks : Tatiana Kolganova, Evelina Domnitch, Dmitry Gelfand, Bram Vreven, Erwin van Asbeck, Aurele Adam, Thim Zuidwijk, Nabi Kambiz, Aidan Wyber, Wim Uijttewaal, Luuk Meints

If/Then
If/Then
If/Then
If/Then