The installation at the ZKM in Karlsruhe is built around a large screen (3m x 8m) on which four high-resolution video projectors present a dynamic flow of three-dimensional images viewable by visitors with the aid of special stereoscopic glasses. Computed in real time, this projected imagery is continually creating manifold structures and patterns that evoke a dramatic network of pictorial and thematic relations such as the neuronal circuits of the human brain, the leads on a printed circuit board, the urban lattice of streets, or the filigree of arteries in the human body.

The installation room is also fitted with a grid of more than 70 speakers distributed over the walls and ceiling. This enables the artwork's specially composed multi-channel sound composition to create a spatial web of three-dimensional acoustic experiences interactively and synergetically linked to the visual manifestation.

This algorithmic tapestry of audiovisual and thematic correspondences is activated and modulated by the patterns derived from the palms of visitors' hands that have been scanned and entered into the system from the local and remote input terminals. These varied and always uniquely individual palm lines then merge into and activate a singular sequence of transformations on the screen as well as in the musical score that accompanies the imagery. In this way each visitor logs into and breathes new life into this immersive networked artwork; with a ritual handshake of solidarity they awaken a fascinating world of visual and thematic correlations and make themselves an important part of the Web of Life.

While one hand-scanning terminal accompanies the installation at the ZKM in Karlsruhe, the four other specially designed terminals will travel to various locations throughout the world during the project's three-year duration. They will potentially be hosted by such institutions and festivals as the Guggenheim Museum in New York, The InterCommunication Center in Tokyo, the Australian Center for the Moving Image in Melbourne and the Ars Electronica in Linz.

Connected via the Internet both to the Web of Life installation at the ZKM and the Web of Life website www.web-of-life.de, these remote input terminals also have video screens and sound systems that provide the visitors with a "telepresent" experience of the audiovisual occurrences at the ZKM.
The production is sponsered by Aventis Foundation.

An authoring team of renowned specialists is responsible for the artistic and technological development of the project:
Michael Gleich, responsible for project content, Professor Jeffrey Shaw, artistic director, Bernd Lintermann, visualization concept and programming, Professor Volker Albus, design of the hand scanning terminals, Fabian Nicolay, corporate design, Andreas Kratky, design of the website in cooperation with Fabian Nicolay, Lawrence Wallen, design of the architecture, Torsten Belschner, acoustic interface

ZKM Institut für Bildmedien 2002