chaos machine

oak wood, steel, slate, glass | 52 x 52 x 192 cm

The chaos machine is the second artwork of the distributed gallery, born during summer 2018. It exists in two copies connected to each other.

The chaos machine works as a crypto-jukebox that plays music whenever a banknote is burned. This music comes from a user-generated playlist, registered on the Ethereum blockchain, and distributively stored for aeternity through to IPFS technology.

When a banknote is burned, a random track is selected into this playlist and shout in both of the connected machines. Thus, if someone hears music coming out of a machine where no banknote is burning, it means that someone has just been burning a banknote somewhere else. Additionnally, when a banknote is burned, a crypto-token is minted and a QR code printed that enables the user to add a new song into the chaos machine's playlist.

The chaos machine has inaugurated the Proof of Work exhibition, curated by Simon Denny, at the Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin. The second copy has been exhibited at the Kate Vass gallery, in Zurich, alongside the work of Ai WeiWei & Kevin Abosh. The chaos machine has eventually been exhibited in Paris during the oct. 2019 FIAC and sold on auction at Drouot.

The chaos machine has also been the subject of an art book prefaced by the french philosopher Bernard Aspe and readable below.

One of the two Chaos machine was exhibited and sold at Phillips during Ex-Machina: A History of Generative Art in July 2022

links

download the book | upload your tracks | browse the GitHub repo