Transcendence Index
Transcendence Index
The installation consists of the following 2 parts:
– a software program which analyzes texts of two periods (1900-1917 and 2000-2017) in order to calculate the index of their transcendence;
– a robotic device which cooks 2 borschts (borscht is a Russian soup based on beetroot) basing their recipes upon the data obtained after the analysis of the texts.
Stages of the Installation Functioning:
1. Texts written and published from 1900 to 1917 and from 2000 to 2017 are divided into sections and then each section is correlated to one of the following borscht ingredients.
For example:
meat – philosophy
potatoes – fiction (prose)
cabbage – texts made up by the authorities (laws, decrees, speeches)
carrots – poetry
beetroots – news
seasonings (onion, garlic, herbs) – private correspondence, memoirs, social networking sites
salt – advertisement, notices
2. The software program finds in the texts marker words of transcendence and evaluates the transcendence index of each text and an average transcendence index in each section of the texts.
3. The program takes into consideration an average borscht recipe and calculates the coefficient of the ratio of the transcendence index of the section and the quantity of each ingredient in borscht and calculates precise content of each food item in the transcendental borscht.
4. In projections the following is shown:
– the borscht ingredients;
– the sections of the texts which correspond to them;
– the titles of the works used in current portion of borscht (in each text section);
– fragments of the analyzed texts with highlighted marker words (in conditionally real time);
– the transcendence index of the analyzed text;
– the average transcendence index of the section. The projections with the data of the texts created in 1900- 1917 and in 2000- 2017 are shown simultaneously.
5. The screens show the calculation of the quantity of each ingredient based on the transcendence index shown in the projections. Thus, a viewer has the opportunity to understand what has been placed in to the borscht which is being cooked at the moment.
6. The robotic device measures o ffthe necessary quantity of each ingredient and places them into soup pots with boiling water. Each ingredient is placed at its time; the degree of heating of the water is controlled by the device.
The device watches over the boil-o ffof the water taking o ffand placing back the lid if necessary. When borsht is ready the heater switches off.
On one side of the table there is the 1900-1917 borscht and on the other side there is the 2000-2017 borscht
Transcendence Index
2017
Generative installation:
stainless steel, plastic, glass, electronic components, pump, electric stoves, boiler, computers, containers for dry vegetables, dry vegetables, pans, covers, actuators, screens, projectors, water, Internet server, database
Implemented with the support of the Federal Chancellery of Austria and the Austrian Cultural Forum in Moscow.
Programming: Sergey Mashkov, Ilya Shirshov
Exhibitions:
2017 / Krasnoyarsk / Krasnoyarsk Museum Biennale “The Village and the Revolution”