Alien City is an entirely virtual city in cyberspace. Its acoustic and optic manifestations are composed of elements of various cities of this world. Web cam grabs, pictures of historic views or utopian visions of the future as well as sounds from open microphones and city soundscapes are the original material; this is permanently morphed in automated processing routines so that it results in a city which is constantly changing. It could be every city in this world or none; it could have existed for hundreds of years or just arise. It is a city of constant change, a hybrid, a city in spaces between, in transit areas and in simultaneous times.
With each manifestation Alien City finds itself at the interface between so-called “real space” and the so-called “virtual world”. The border between these two has already become permeable a while ago due to the new technologies and just this permeability is the fundamental condition for the existence of Alien City. Growth emerges from the incorporation of fragments of the reality of those places where it settles for a short time. The generative and process-related structures used for rearranging and changing these fragments may come from different places, people, machines or programmes. It is no longer possible to account for reasons – but that is the nature of Alien City. And when it drifts nomadically to another place this place will again be changed by its presence. It adds a new dimension to this place, which it could never have without it. It sends out signals and it receives signals. Alien City is on the move.
(Photo: Alien Productions)