M3MP%L is a series of text based audiovisual compositions that represent associative space. As the computer terminal is a low-level ontological tool for interfacing the real world with computational landscapes, these series resemble the performative mechanics of such gateways. Given that digital information doesn't inherently exist in a physical space, one can use any structural framework to illustrate the relationships between files, folders, thoughts and other conceptual entities. Thus, the interface becomes a mental blueprint, where each character defines an imaginary position in space. The title refers to the mempool (short for memory pool) which is a temporary holding area for transactions that have been broadcast to a blockchain network but have not yet been confirmed and added to a block.
Artificial memory architectures often grapple with the dichotomy between associative and spatial memory paradigms. While spatial memory frameworks prioritize the organization of information in physical or abstract spatial arrangements, reflecting the human brain's propensity for spatial cognition, associative memory models prioritize the interconnectedness of information, emphasizing the strength of relationships between data points. M3MP%L takes an attempt to represent some of these dichotomies. Although the scenes are based on text-based characters and operator symbols from low-level computer code, their structures escape verbal determinations and function as an absorption surface for conventional formulae. Without relying on language, form becomes the defining element— a gesture that shapes hybrid ontologies of existential space.
The installation runs as a standalone environment using three Raspberry PI computers, where the sounds and the displayed graphics are generated in realtime.
While the complete series of the artworks are part of an ever increasing collection on the ethereum blockchain, the exhibition consists of a tryptich, displaying three different views of the same computational space. The screen on the left displays words that are connected to emptiness and the void, enclosed in an interface that is determined to scroll ad infinitum. The middle screen displays fragments of locations, that can be found on maps and dungeon games. The layout resembles the recursive arrangement of the files and the folders, that displays the allocated spatial usage through a 2D map-like environment. The last screen displays a file tree structure, where the randomly generated words are synonyms for branches and nested infrastructures.
While the initial version of M3MP%L represented a simulated environment, the updated version displays historical information on the Ethereum Mempool, using real data scraped from the network. These details indicate different aspects of the pending transactions: the address of a transaction (middle screen), the gas fee it took to validate the transaction while adding it to the blockchain (left screen) and details on how long a transaction was living in the mempool (added to the right screen). The image below displays raw data of such information, fetched directly from the ethereum network.
