Crash is the title of an interactive multimedia installation that focuses on the ground zero of the recent financial crisis – the desks of bankers, brokers and traders. The installation puts the user in the panoptic position of a stock trader, who experiences and influences a particular representation of reality on his monitors. Thereby Crash is half a simulation whilst the other half is some sort of reality check. The left of the two screens displays software that includes charts and actual stock exchange data from March 2008 to March 2009. It resembles existing stock trading programmes and processes the stock quotes of 18 of the world’s most influential companies and conglomerates. The right screen correlates a second reality to the stock quotes, and it is the world of coincidence, accident and news coverage. Both realities are tightly tied together. If a quote drops, the accident on the timeline progresses, influences both, image and sound, and reverse. The user is able to activate and to deactivate the quotes and therewith the video and sound track just like on a sampler. The quotes overlay not only eachother but also the video and sound tracks concurrently. Soon the initial order gets more and more chaotic until eventually, all of the 18 quotes being activated, the tracks merge into a vast meta crash.

Installation shot: Candid Gallery, June 2009

Installation shot, detail: Candid Gallery, June 2009
Moving image: Stock quote of Citigroup (March 2008 – March 2009)
Moving image: Stock quote of Procter & Gamble (March 2008 – March 2009)
Moving image: Stock quote of General Electric (March 2008 – March 2009)
Moving image: Stock quotes of Boeing, Citigroup, General Electric and Procter & Gamble (March 2008 – March 2009)
The entire research on a separate page.



