Klangwolke ABC

A Galaxy of Messages Created Through Public Participation

h.o participated in this project organized by Ars Electronica.

The history of Ars Electronica began in 1979, the same year as the first Klangwolke (Sound Cloud) event. In this groundbreaking event, the citizens of Linz tuned into the same radio channel, and the entire city was covered by a carpet of sound. Through this participatory process, a vast soundscape was created.

By 2012, information technology enabled the free circulation of information, while social media began to connect people in new ways that were not confined to traditional frameworks. On the one hand, these tools acted as triggers for protests against outdated ideas and politics; on the other, global disasters such as the Fukushima nuclear accident seemed like a warning for today’s technology-driven society. All these developments and events related to information, governance, and media prompted fundamental questions about the nature of the individual in modern society: What is the individual? What is a nation? What is information?

In this context, what role do written words and characters play in the world? Google, as a search engine based entirely on characters, is one example of the power of characters in today’s global village. Moreover, we communicate with each other through character-based services such as email, Twitter, and Facebook. We are more dependent on characters than ever to stay in touch, and we are more immersed in the characters themselves than ever before.

Considering the idea of audience participation in social media, Klangwolken ABC was conceived as a social participation project focusing on “characters” in the age of networks. It became one of the core programs of voestalpine Klangwolke 2012. In this project, people create their own characters to interact with radio frequencies at the event, forming a massive galaxy of characters that gathers along the Danube River.

In the Klangwolken ABC workshops, participants construct their own alphabet characters and add receivers and LED kits to link them to the Klangwolken event. They choose a character, assemble it, and personalize it creatively. Literally, every participant creates a unique character. The characters created in the workshop are recorded in an image database and become part of the Klangwolke Font. Additionally, participants join CharakterBook, an online service that functions like a micro-Facebook, allowing them to browse other characters created by participants, create messages, and engage in social actions. The individual characters created by participants evolve into words or messages as they communicate and collaborate with one another. In Klangwolken ABC, messages are gathered through the combination of characters with characters—people with people.

The characters created in Klangwolken ABC are used to “hack” text information in the media and in the cities themselves. Information written in dry, formatted letters is replaced with democratic, colorful representations. Various kinds of information, such as city signage, news about the city, and texts from the Ars Electronica Festival 2012, have been reconfigured through the Klangwolken Font.

On the day of the Klangwolke event, Klangwolken ABC parades took place throughout the city of Linz. In addition, a multitude of characters gathered along the Danube River at sunset. Perhaps a complete message will appear, or perhaps only individual characters will be seen. However, just like in 1979 when people tuned into the same radio frequency, a universe of characters resonated with a radio frequency in Donaupark. Reacting to sound and radio signals, individual characters and messages within groups lit up LED lights. At first, it may seem like an overwhelming expression of an information society inundated with characters. But soon, powerful messages will emerge in this space.

Thus, Klangwolken ABC is not merely about displaying character information, but about guiding people into actual tangible actions. Furthermore, it allows people to create their own shared “now.”

Considering the history of characters, Shizuka Shirakawa, a scholar of Kanji (Chinese characters in Japanese), said: “Kanji is an ideogram; its form reflects the concepts and way of life of the people from the time when Chinese characters were established. Each individual character, while retaining its primal form, seems to strive to communicate its own identity.” (Shizuka Shirakawa: Kanji, Iwanami Shinsho, 1970)
A character was a magical container that contained the culture and stories of the world.

The alphabet seems to have an inherent intention for democracy. In an alphabet, an individual letter has little meaning. Only when it “meets” other letters does new meaning emerge. A character is always seeking other characters. It cannot hide its essential desire to connect with others.

What happens if we create additional meaning—like an ideogram—for individual alphabet characters?
Klangwolken ABC reveals a new form of characters. All the characters created in the workshops are full of creativity and ideas—they represent an entire cosmos created by people. Each character reflects individual preferences, cultural backgrounds, construction techniques, and ways of thinking.

Interestingly, when we express text information, such as news or tweets, through the Klangwolke Font, the expressive gap between regular fonts and colorful characters creates the impression that the new characters are trying to reveal a hidden intention behind the information. Once again, what is information? Klangwolken ABC expresses a primal form of information through two processes: matching the creator of the character with the sender of the information and gathering emotional desire in the physical space of the Klangwolke event.

The theme of the character as a magical container was explored in depth during a special exhibition at Ars Electronica in 2012. This exhibition sought to answer questions such as: How did this Klangwolke provoke ABC social intervention? What is a character essentially? How has the world been recorded through this magical container? And how do people interact with different forms of magical containers using evolving technologies, and what do we want to convey by using the magical container as human beings?

Finally, the Klangwolke Font will become an open font, and this new culture, born from voestalpine Klangwolke 2012, will continue to convey the mood of the era, serving as a symbol for action in the real world.

This project is known as one of the most memorable citizen-participation projects in the history of Ars Electronica.