Since 2001 The artist duo //////////fur//// (Voker Morawe/TilmanReiff) creates multi-sensory artefacts related to the construction and social aspects of computer game culture. Their interactive installations combine game-logic, media criticism, apparatus parody and childhood memories into engaging man-machine experiences, oftentimes altering the view on the relationship between man and technology. Beside the main artistic question of alternative user interface humor, group experience and hormones are the key points of their work.
Volker Morawe, Dipl. AV, born 1970 in the north of Germany, grew up in a sheltered small town close to the city of Bremen which is famous for its coffee and beer production. Passing through several schools, job training as space electronics technician, participant of second-chance education, hit producer, design student, from 1999 to 2004 student at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Major field of study: multisensoric interfaces in game context.
Tilman Reiff, Dipl. Inform. (FH), Dipl. AV, born 1971 in Duesseldorf, Germany, spent his childhood in the fatherly electronics laboratory and on offroad bicycles in the construction sites of Ratingen-Homberg. After a rebellious school carreer he left Munich to study computer science and media at the University of applied sciences in Furtwangen, followed by a postgraduate study at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Major field of studies: interaction design.
The Earworm Assault Devices (EAD) are a set of weapons for the propagation of highly infectious sound or music (earworms).
Sound is unavoidable (the ear can’t be shut like the eye) and evolutionary hardwired into our cognition apparatus, it can reach into the subconscious and arouse emotions. A well made sound can get stuck in the head of the hearer and loop for a varying time span. The infected person oftentimes repeats the sound involuntarily by singing, humming or whistling, eventually spreading the earworm like a virus. Messages can be modulated onto earworms like radiowaves on a carrier frequency, as a result earworms can be used to distribute messages or manipulate the individual. This fact is recognized and commercially exploited in various fields of modern life – like pop music, cellphone ringtones, audiobranding or elevator music to name a few.
Global brands are using huge budgets to propagate their earworms by means of multiple costly channels, the respectable citizen remains defence- and powerless. Until now: The Earworm Assault Devices (EAD) enable individuals or small groups to distribute their own earworms. Small pieces of highly infectious sound or music can be recorded onto the devices and fired at single or multiple persons, eventually spreading your message out into the world.
They come in different shapes and sizes and are affordable for small budgets.