BAIJU PARTHAN

Flow - Instant Karma Algorithm
Interactive Video Data Projection, Flash Animation, Action Script Programming, LCD projector, mouse, PC
2004-2005

Flow - Instant Karma Algorithm draws its inspiration from the 'body without organs' constructed out of flows as suggested by Deluze and Guatari.

The work is presented as an interactive click-able video data projection that mimics the presentation layout of a regular news channel display - with stock quotes, currency values, and news tickers - and depicts the close up of a torso being panned in four directions. Every mouse click on this panned torso produces a bleeding wound that drips down the interface.

An icon like animation of a pair of hands being washed in water presented along with the panned torso works almost as a willed act of absolution which the viewer can call upon through another mouse click. This act triggers a computer algorithm which then chooses to display a message to the viewer depending on the ratio between blood and water.

On one hand this work is a comment on the state of world affairs where all places and spaces are equally vulnerable to fatal attacks from various interest groups. On the other it is about the shadow side of the technological inter-connectivity and information 'flow' which has woven all locations across the world into one taut skin surface, making it vulnerable to acts of violence of remote origin. A mouse click could effectively detonate a remote controlled explosive device killing thousands, or bring down a nation's economy destroying the life of millions.

Along with these concerns, the artist is also positing a different notion of the body. The body as it is constructed in the East, a 'Karmic body', a residual body which is the accretion of acts one commits in a lifetime.