Premiered at Istanbul Digital Art Festival 2026 (3. – 7. June 2026) at Atatürk Cultural Center
Curated by Evgeniya Romanidi
Memory In Use
(2026) RAM as a generative canvas
Description
The installation uncovers an internal space of a computer, which is only virtually accessible for humans: The random access memory (RAM). Every program and routine that runs on a computer, occupies parts of the memory space, a volatile and fast-changing landscape of data blocks. Although invisible to the human eye, it can be felt by a human user as „pressure“, especially when a computer slows down. The installation takes a closer look at memory, by investigating it on a live-system and enabling visitors to look into this generative canvas through eight different windows.
The actual main exhibit of this installation is the code, that is working live and is run on the generator and can be found on the front-side of the installation. A small square display shows the actual program running.
Different processes are being started and stopped, in order to occupy the memory space. What are these processes? Chrome browser, going to www.google.com takes a lot of memory. Notepad text-editor to write down text, not as much.
Ultimately, on the 8 LED panels you can see „eight windows“ into the memory. Each showing a different cut-out of the memory space. Each specific process is represented by a single textglyph + color combination, so the Chrome browser (if it pops up) has the symbol „C“
Moreover, each window is able to gradually zoom in and zoom out. Giving a visitor different levels of overview or closeness to the processes.
Because the memory is a volatile space that changes all the time, no single output on the LEDs will be the same on consecutive visits. Although the construction of the installation is permanent and fixed, the artwork is self is a fluid and generative canvas flowing forever.
Raspberry Pi 5 (8 GB RAM Version) + Square Display
8 LED Matrices
8 Teensy 4.1
Custom LED Controllers
Networked Data over ArtNet using artnet4j library cansik
Black Alu Profiles
Custom cable work
