"kringla heimsins": Is an interactive, animated panorama constructed from international currency
translates to pretzel world or the circle of the world.
kringla heimsins conceals a grim ecological narrative. It uses currency as both didactic and mnemonic device, to trace the historical process, creates the establishment of typologies and temporal continuities even if only fictitious. These symbols of sovereignty are recoded by grouping forms and eroding the negative space of buildings and mountains, and employing histograms, which reference global ecological conditions such as: tracing carbon emissions, acidification levels of oceans, Milankovitch cycles, energy policy spending, and other contributing factors.
This computational panorama, which employs a 3D/Depth camera, follows a randomized path based on eye movement and loops, producing the illusion of a continuous image. When a viewer approaches the projection, their view of the city responds relative to their position.
To articulate what is past does not mean to recognize “how it really was.” It means to take control of a memory, as it flashes in a moment of danger. For historical materialism it is a question of holding fast to a picture of the past, just as if it had unexpectedly thrust itself, in a moment of danger, on the historical subject. The danger threatens the stock of tradition as much as its recipients. For both it is one and the same: handing itself over as the tool of the ruling classes. In every epoch, the attempt must be made to deliver tradition anew from the conformism which is on the point of overwhelming it.
(Walter Benjamin . On the Concept of History 1974)