The Loss of Information and Sense

The Loss of Information and Sense is an anthology of selected, machine-made images and literary works by different authors on the subjects of language, information, meaning, and data.

The main topic of the book is the loss of information that occurs due to various forms of change (mainly translation, but also disintegration, misinformation, decay, etc.). Here are some examples: Looking at the book’s images (which used to be PDFs, texts full of information), we find ourselves not being able to retrieve most of their original content. They have been translated with a faulty dictionary. What we see now is what is left after they have gone through a process of change. The information might still be there, but we are not able to see or understand it. However, they might have obtained a new purpose, a visual, maybe aesthetic or monumental one. They still do something with us when we look at them, similar to ruins, relics, artefacts.

Published with the kind support of Kanton St.Gallen and Stadt St.Gallen.