A quiet desert failure

Filling the data centers of tumblr and leaving the desert behind. One post a time.

A quiet desert failure is an algorithmic performance I started in 2013 and presented publicly in 2015, inside The Wrong, the New Digital Art Biennale. In its own way it is a monument to internet content, emptiness, time, storage, memory, oblivion and, ultimately, failure.

I programmed a bot to walk across the datascape of Google Maps and slowly refill a Tumblr blog, and its data centers, with a remapped version of the whole Sahara Desert. One post every thirty minutes. The full performance will take around fifty years to complete, and I honestly don't know whether the audience, Google's servers, the Tumblr archive or the internet itself will last long enough to see the end.

So there is no reason to hurry. Be patient. The desert is coming.

2013-2053 (maybe)
Algorithmic performance, Website, Tumblr archive
Online project

Credits

Fail/URL: desert.fail/ure, desert.fail/url

Tumblr archival performance: quietdesertfailure.tumblr.com

Music: Fabio Angeli, Lorenzo Del Grande

The Wrong Pavilion: inexactitudeinscience.com

Special thanks to Florian Kuhlmann & Digital3mpire

The artist is typing. Now and somewhere...