Bithike

The title of this installation doesn t just refer to the unit of information, the bit, but above all to the Japanese ‘haiku’. The complex minimalism of this form of verse has acquired beautiful digital variation in Bithike. Often excess rules the Net – in colour, forms and gimmicks – but Bithike is deceptively simple. Frames made up of at most 8 x 8 = 64 bytes can be animated by the user using simple techniques into a figure that moves in a loop of eight images. These loops can then be sent to an archive on Internet, where they can be seen by other Internet passers-by. The users are limited in their options, so they are forced to think about what they want to show, to stay as clear as possible. Bithike plays with the tension between restrictions and creativity. By making the results available to others, it is also a form of communication.