The World Generator / The Engine of Desire

The World Generator was developed in 1996/97 with programmer Gideon May and specifically enlarged for “p0es1s.” Participants can use this digital machine to generate, in real-time, virtual surroundings out of different digital elements, within which they can then navigate. 3-D objects can be selected, put in scale, given texture; pictures and videos can be placed and repeatedly rearranged in an ever growing world; music, as well as written and spoken texts, change the projected world into an audio-visual space of experience. These “Recombinant Poetics” are used to examine the way meanings arise out of different medial contexts. For “p0es1s,” Bill Seaman has used this electronic machine in order to transpose text from the context of the World Generator into the real exhibition area: i.e., the text installed in the stairway of the Kulturforum “describes” physical space in a manner derived from the virtual space of the World Generator.

Bill Seaman

was born 1956. His work explores text, image and/or sound relationships through technological installation, virtual reality, linear video, computer controlled laserdisc, and other computerbased media, photography, and studio-based audio compositions. He is self-taught as a composer and musician. His works have been in numerous international festivals and museum shows where he has been awarded many prizes. Seaman is the Head of the Digital Media Program at Rhode Island School of Design. He also continues his research at the University of California, Los Angeles.


> Bill Seaman