Cube_1997

Cube_1997

2019, video
length: 0’24” – format: 16:9
video & sound: LIA
edition: 10 + 1AP

made for a2p – a new type of online exhibition: read about the experiment here!
curated by:
Casey Reas, Rick Silva, Addie Wagenknecht, and exonemo (Sembo Kensuke and Akaiwa Yae).

Cube_1997

Cube_1997 was never lost. Its creator, LIA, brought forth its existence in 1997 using the power of her mouse and her keyboard and her will (and some electricity, too); it had failed to sufficiently please her at the time and, after just a few years, she abandoned it, and it lay, forgotten, in a folder within a folder, at a dark corner in the furthest reaches of her realm of ancient backups.

But things that are only forgotten are not actually lost; things that are only hidden can be found once more. It has been 22 years since Cube_1997 was forged and, even if many things have changed meanwhile, many things are still the same: a pixel is still a pixel, black is still 0x000000, white is still 0xFFFFFF, and LIA still loves both black and white with all her heart. Like love letters to a former self, Cube_1997 was rediscovered and recovered, and brought into the 21st century with much care and love. Sadly, not all things can be preserved in such a transition, and what was once a fully living and breathing application, capable of generating an infinite number of images forever (albeit at a somewhat shabby resolution of 640×480), can, today, only manage 24 seconds in one sitting – but for that 24 seconds, Cube_1997 shines forth in glorious 1080p.

Damian Stewart
September 2019