Maria Varela at “PIKSEL20. The future narrow, where you don’t want to go.”

Lachesis Algorithm (part of the triptych “The Moirae”) will be screening at Cyber Salon of “PIKSEL20. The future narrow, where you don’t want to go.”

The three Moirae are transformed from mythical entities to three algorithms and re-define the destiny of western archives. Mythical beings acquire algorithmic substance and derive material from the open licensed repositories of Western culture through the Europeana accumulator.
The stored files become operational after being fragmented and rebuilt through structural modification.

In Greek mythology the three moirae are:

Clotho who spun the thread of life.
Lachesis who measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rot and decided who will take each part and how he/she will be benefited.
Atropos was the cutter of the thread of life.

The myth defines the function and behavior model of the three algorithms.

As the mythical Clotho selects and prepares the raw material, the Clotho algorithm draws all the images to be processed by moirae. Images are selected based on three criteria:
1.date. Selected images were added to the platform three days earlier because Moirae appear on the third day of birth.
2.the file being edited is an image and its type is .jpeg,
3.the edited files are licensed of free re-use

The algorithmic Lachesis deconstructs the images collected by Klotho. After setting the number of pixels per line, it creates a continuous thread that is unwrapped on the screen. The way the new remodeled material is represented draws visual inspiration from the textile weaving. The thread remains continuous and rotates from right to left and then from left to right creating an endless weft. This alignment creates patterns through the relationships that neighbouring pixels develop.

The Atropos algorithm cuts pieces of this new digital woven and transforms them into standalone physical objects.

The algorithmic moirae are independent. According to the laws of necessity, they are called upon to redefine the destiny of archival material, by reasserting the materiality of cultural heritage to redefine its digital transformation.

Maria Varela​ (Athens, 1984) works as a media artist with her focus on creative technologies, data weaving visualisation and conducting workshops. In her practice she experiments with ways in which the archival event can be transcribed from the digital environment to the natural world. Maria is a visual arts SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2019.