Kleine Welt Maschine, Donaueschingen / Small World Machine, Donaueschingen
Installation, Museum Biedermann, Donaueschingen, Germany
Turntable Construction: Ulrich Panzer
Soft- and Hardware Construction: Sukandar Kartadinata and Christian Dietz
2011

images / text / movie / sound



The chandelier of the Museum Biedermann's mirror-room in Donaueschingen becomes part of a machine that scratches through different models of the world in different resolutions. The data handled by the machine materializes in the form of three vinyl records, one of the last Mohicans among the popular data storages of the analogue times. Like most of the other machines All in all the machine can be looked at as a tool and metaphor for sorting things out and lining them up. It is also a homage to "The Edison Effect" by Paul DeMarinis, the most amazing array of record players since there are records to be played with.

The Mechanism consists of four parts:

— A copper turntable that turns once a day.
— A rotary speaker that turns at 33 rpm.
— A swinging chandelier, executing a pendulum movement, functioning as the virtual stylus.
— 3 golden records.

The Records:

— Low resolution: Gene Autry & Jimmy Long - "That silver haired daddy of mine"
— Medium resolution: The Golden Voyager Record >>> LINK
— High resolution: a sono-topographic map of the world with Donaueschingen as the center ( the record's hole) >>> LINK

The height of the chandelier / length of the pendulum is alternating from high to low, manually changed from day to day.

Commissioned by the SWR for the Musik Tage Donaueschingen 2011. Curated by Armin Koehler
Special thanks to Simone Jung and the Museum Biedermann, and the support of Georg Riedmann and the Bauhof of Donaueschingen.