The Fuzzy Wanker

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做愛國港人之二，模糊自慰隊

“The Fuzzy Wanker ” is an Internet installation work. In the exhibition space, a box of iron bearing balls move around in a seemingly chaotic manner. In fact, a computer connecting to the Internet accesses 33 websites periodically. The websites are the corporate web front-ends of the 33 companies in Hong Kong which constitute the Hong Kong Hang Seng stock iIndex. At the same time, the computer detects each piece of data flowing through it and displays the character in visual form both as a LED panel and an array of 64 magnetic coils under the box of iron balls. Each visible character will show in form of a 8 x 8 pixels square, where each pixel is a magnetic coil. Each black dot will be magnetized and white dot not. A magnetized dot will attract the iron balls to form a pattern of the character in the box. Owing to the “analog” nature of the movement of the iron balls, the pattern formed will resemble little of the original character. As a result, audience will experience just a pure movement of the balls indicating the flow of information through the computer network.

To demonstrate your love towards Hong Kong and China, our SAR government often encourages to spend and invest in Hong Kong. The performance of the Hang Seng stock index is a usual indicator of the investment scenario. The investment increases the capital flow and at the same time, indirectly, increases the network data flow. Participants in the installation work can visually and tangibly feel the flow.

Design diagrams

Video recording of the virtual version.