KONTROLLORGAN 
Our datashadow - its form

Carsten Becker
Academy for Media Arts Cologne
1998


In our daily lives we leave a growing amount of electonic traces behind
us.

Whether paying by credit card or by making a telephone call, 
personal data is produced everywhere. Once disengaged from us, the
data flows through electronic networks and databases.

The power of this digital persona is however, barely comprehensible to
the individual.

Kontrollorgan gives a form to our infinitely fragmented datashadow.
The program links the datastreams of a person, analyzes them and
generates a three-dimensional shape.

A circle of acquaintances, a subject-space and a personal topography are 
displayed. A band graphically representing the average amount of actions 
within a given period of time is also shown. The viewer can interpret forms
and constellations of the objects, and lapses of time can be comprehended 
and interpreted.

Kontrollorgan reflects our datashadow online and focuses it to a
dataportrait: each person by simply existing, generates individual and 
new forms.

Which relationships will develop between our digital alter ego and ourselves?
Which causes and reactions will emerge from this relationship? In which ways 
will our lives be affected?