Artists Statement

Experimental book installation (2015)

Encyclopedia is an ecological installation featuring digital and sculptural content. The core of the work is a text generator that creates encyclopedic entries for extinct fictive animal species. These unique entries are given away as printed index cards to visitors of the exhibition. The work aims to put a gentle focus on the state of the planet, meanwhile exploring the possibilities of digital art. The text presentations of each species shift between matter-of-fact descriptions of habitat and feeding habits and more poetic sentences of the characteristics of the species and its surroundings.

• Johannes Heldén is an author, visual artist, musician. Born in 1978, he lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden, and is the author of 11 books, five digital interactive artworks, and three full-length music albums. Previous solo exhibitions include HUMlab/Umeå University, OEI Colour Project (with Håkan Jonson), Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Galleri Volt in Bergen, Stene Projects in Stockholm, and the Gothenburg Museum of Art amongst others. Group exhibitions include Remediating the Social at Inspace, Edinburgh, Against Time at Bonniers Konsthall, In Search of the Unknown at NIMK Amsterdam, and Chercher le texte at Centre Pompidou. Digital works published in the ELMCIP anthology of European Electronic Literature, Spring Gun Press, Afsnit P and others.
• Håkan Jonson (b. 1978) is a Swedish artist, programmer, and author. Works include electronic art, painting, sound creation and handcrafted books. He is one half of Irrlicht, a publishing house and record company primarily focused on the contemporary art scene and a recurring contributor at conferences and seminars concerning software development, cognitive science, and electronic literature. In 2014 his work Evolution (in collaboration with Johannes Heldén) was rewarded the N. Katherine Hayles Award for Criticism of Electronic Literature.

Text with images (PDF)  p. 160