#Spread – Language is a Virus from Outer Space
is a participatory installation that approaches language as a viral form of information propagating through people, architecture, and networks.
Developed in response to Space, an architectural work by the Japanese artist collective Mé, the installation positions the building as its host, adopting the logic of a virus that cannot exist without a host. Visitors contribute their names as units of linguistic data, which accumulate within the exhibition and are processed by AI to transform the building’s façade. Each contribution alters the conditions encountered by subsequent visitors, allowing traces of previous participants to persist within the work over time.
The activated information extends beyond the exhibition space through online networks, generating new associations and relationships.
Exhibition photo by Kuniya Oyamada
Critical Essays and Reviews
Akihiro Kubota Media Artist, Emeritus Professor Art an dMedia Course, DEpartment of Information Design, Tama Art University
"An Entanglement of Information and Human Arising from a Collage of Flawlessly Composed Ideas"
"An Entanglement of Information and Human Arising from a Collage of Flawlessly Composed Ideas"
Chieko Nakagawa Curator Towda Art Centre
"Noriko Okaku: Collaging the Known and Unknown"
"Noriko Okaku: Collaging the Known and Unknown"
Yuki Furuse Medical Doctor; Professor, Department of Microbiology and Infection, The University of Tokyo Pandemic Preparedness, Infection and Advanced Research Center.
"Language, Thought, and Information: Some Virological Observations and Complications"
"Language, Thought, and Information: Some Virological Observations and Complications"
As the work evolved throughout the exhibition period, traces of its ongoing transformation were documented and circulated through the official Instagram account:
https://www.instagram.com/towada_space/
Playlist (sound cloud):
Music generated from participant-contributed linguistic name data during the exhibition.
#Spread - Language os a virus from outer space Diagram