Analogue Is the New Digital in 'ADA,' and Interactive Installation

ADA is an "analogue interactive installation" made of a giant ball filled with helium, covered in charcoal spikes. As the ball drifts around the space, charcoal marks accumulate on the walls. Visitors can push the ball around the space freely, but the results are never predictable. 

Artist Karina Smigla-Bobinski is originally from Poland and now based in Munich and Berlin. According to Régine Debatty at We Make Money Not Art, ADA is currently stealing the show at FILE, the Electronic Language International Festival in São Paulo. Smigla-Bobinski says, "Ada seems to respond to some kind of human instinct. In ancient times people left their hand prints on cave walls. I often thought of this, when I saw people handling the balloon in this "cave." But Ada is constructed to have her own will. She does not follow "programs" or commands; once you set her in motion she just works away."

After the first week of the exhibit, ADA looked a little worse, or a little awesomer, for wear. Smigla-Bobinski described the scene afterwards, "I found ADA still asleep and resting, after about 14,000 visitors in the first week of FILE. ADA appeared very alive ... she and the whole space were already black. What a touching sight."

To see more work by Karina Smigla-Bobinski, visit http://www.smigla-bobinski.com/. ADA is on display at FILE in Sãu Paulo through the end of August 2011.