ASCII Alphabet is a humorous look at the "digitality" of the information object. It consists of a series of opposing image pairs, taken from antiquated children's encyclopaedias, and accompanying sounds. These paired binaries are arranged according to one of the most commonly used binary text encoding schemes : the ASCII code (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). In ASCII code each character of the alphabet can be reduced to a 7 digit binary string. ASCII Alphabet is structured so as to slowly reveal the encoded alphabet, first by transcribing these strings using the 26 pairs of sounds (A-Z), then by adding the numerals 1 and 0, and finally by using both the opposing images and sound together. In an attempt to give insight, for our analog consciousness, into the nature of digital information, ASCII Alphabet becomes more of an exploration of the breakdown of difference through digital translation and formal manipulation.
ASCII Alphabet
Awards and mentions
Prix Vidéoformes
Festival International d'Art Vidéo et Multimédia
Clermont-Ferrand
2001
V Tape Award, Prix du public
Images Festival
Toronto
2000
Direction
Dorion Berg
Production
Dorion Berg
Color
Color
Sound
Stereo
Images
Keywords
Language, Communication, Number, Letter