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Random Walk / Liat Segal

This is a time of absolute truths: black or white, good or bad, profit or loss, one or zero. No third possibility exists. We have internalized the language of code and are now trying to apply it to every decision, every perception, every choice. We wish to present everything on a uniform scale, as if every ethical dilemma, financial plan, and culinary selection can be broken down into a single currency, an established exchange. As if we can apply the same principles to choosing a washing machine, our lifelong profession, or the values we instill in our children.

This concept of a standard measurement is, of course, an illusion. And yet, it is an important illusion. In a world so overwhelmingly complex, this concept enables us to imagine our lives as a series of logical steps and choices – lives that can be foreseen with sufficient data and processing power. As if the world was comprised of a clear set of causes and effects, and not a chaotic array starring a revolving sword of arbitrary randomness looming over our heads.

The fundamental language of binary code reigns over all. Incapable of encapsulating the human experience with all its intricacies and subtleties. However, it is its tyrannical and rigid nature that draws us to try and grasp it with both hands as our salvation. The very idea that there are no absolutely right or absolutely wrong choices, and that even if they did exist, we would be unable to make them, is too difficult to tolerate.

“Random Walk” is a mathematical process that describes random motion over time. In the very center of her new solo exhibition, artist Liat Segal has positioned a machine that makes this chaotic movement tangible with form. This installation, taking up the entire gallery space of the Herzliya Artists’ Residence, is comprised of three parts: cause, effect, and ripple.

Cause: The cause is a large metal cylinder, a raised platform positioned as an altar, at its head a stretched piece of black latex. A coin rests on the latex. An internal mechanism sucks in and then releases the latex every few seconds, allowing the coin to bounce up continuously, an eternal round of heads or tails, ad infinitum. This is a flipistical machine. It holds only two possible outcomes. Both are absolute. Neither it no you have the power to influence which outcome is presented. The tally is inevitable, involuntary, and uncontrollable. Distribution is uniform and discrete, random and repetitive. Fate tosses a coin and it spins and falls, a finality. That is the very nature of coin tossing – it eases those difficult moments when we have to decide between different possibilities and have no crucial data to rely on, or when the options have no common moral ground to compare and evaluate.

The result of each toss is recorded by the camera positioned above the cylinder. It is presented in binary values on an electronic screen, updated every few seconds. The flashing numbers provide empirical readings of the coin toss. Can this screen be trusted? That remains unclear. The screen points ahead to the other two elements of the machine.

The tossed coin is a single dollar from a series coined in 1979-1981 with the image of Susan B. Anthony, one of pioneers of the women’s rights movement. It was the first American coin to depict a woman. Never popular, its production was stopped quickly. Alongside Anthony’s profile is the famous inscription “In God We Trust”, the official American motto from 1956 onwards. On the other side, over the head of a bald eagle bearing an olive branch, is a Latin inscription: E PLURIBUS UNUM (“Out of many, one”), throughout 1872-1956 another US motto. Thus, one side of the coin tends to determinism, while the other espouses the unity formed from melding many individual identities often in contention and without the ability to tip the scales either way. Alternatively, it may be that the symbolic significance of the coin is nothing but the undersigned attempt to find a pattern, to connect the dots in the search for comprehensible meaning.

Indeed, we spend our lives endlessly seeking out patterns and adhering to rules. If some rules are still lacking, we’ll invent them. We are aware that sequences of events may transpire at random but prefer to believe in causality. Pitching our expectations into the universe in the hopes it adjusts accordingly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc77B8R-96Q&feature=youtu.be

Effect: The coin’s guidance activates the second component of this machine by Segal. Here, the circle at the base of the cylinder from the first element – the cause – reappears on a larger scale, now on the opposite gallery wall. Here also the circle provides a base, but now bears the weight of a cone comprised of 1,165 narrow black polyurethane bands that bursts out of it, extended tautly towards a point in the center of the space. A shining metal ring holds them, a shackle floating mid-space, an inverted vanishing point that sketches a delicate and precise three-dimensional image.

The black mass narrows down to a pinprick. The bands leave the perimeter on the wall to blend into a glowing dark form. Out of many, one. This wonder, hovering between heaven and earth, is possible thanks to constricting forces powered by two mechanical belts that pull the cone up and sideways, along with the brass weight pulling it down.

The coin tossing outcomes are translated into values, these are fed into the engine as it pulls the belts in different directions. The shackle shifts imperceivably as the belts and weights move. The cone sways slowly from side to side, its bands bunching and relaxing, reflecting the light, a vibrating shadow of thousands of diagonal lines on the wall and floor. Like a huge animal snout, its movements measured and clumsy, each made up of countless details and fragments of force. The coin toss awakens the ghost within the machine, undermining the perception that the cone is merely an inanimate object.

We attribute life to the cone because of its motion, but also thanks to the aesthetic choices made by Segal: the circular manacle, the bands so reminiscent of reins, the ropes. We associate the powers at play with some social, or interpersonal meaning. If the means to bind something are here, there must be something meant to be bound, something to discipline. Control indicates someone has surrendered.

We cannot be indifferent to what we identify as an object when it begins to move in a way that gives it the impression of life. We naturally tend to project our humanity beyond the bounds of where humanity ends. We attribute a will to lifeless objects and experience intense emotional reactions when faced with machines. This familiarity with machines works in two directions; we have been accustomed to thinking of ourselves as intelligent machines. Thinking machines. Survival machines. among the myriad metaphors of the digital age, we see our cognizance as a data processing mechanism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVUOtMCvjgE

Ripple: The cones motion in the space is recorded by another camera, and the shackle’s placement activates a third movement.

The circle appears again in the machine’s third component. At first, the coin and platform were raised; a small circle inside a larger one. Then the circle appeared on the wall, where it served as the base of the black-banded cone. Its diameter has expanded. Now, in the third movement, it grows yet again.

Circles are perfect, continuous. No beginning or end, no corners or angles. Every point on the circumference is equally distant from the center. The constant ratio between diameter and circumference always remaining the same (irrational). The circle’s shape is an abiding image, with examples too many to number, from tribal gathering circles, Dante’s nine circles of hell, Christian saintly halos. Circles are timeless. Divine, as befitting a symmetrical shape so flawlessly balanced. The circular space provided by Segal also carries its own ritualism. It pulls at the senses, as we prefer the ceremony over bare reality. It simplifies matters. It offers security. A promise of salvation, or at the very least – control.

The ripple, the third element, is a round metal dais. Its surface is black and glossy. Hundreds of clear cups of water, of varying sizes and shapes, are stationed atop it. They are upside down, their rims resting on the dais, each half-filled with water. Each also contains several tiny magnets. Hundreds of transparent incubators, miniscule nests with a tiny magnet nestling.

The cone’s motion causes ripples within the upside-down cups, and triggers the motion of additional, invisible magnets placed under the dais. In turn, this movement stirs the minute magnets in the cups. Called to action, they respond instantly, jumping in all directions, bouncing within the clear walls of the cup encapsulating their private universes, agitating the water and then dropping still. Awaiting the next call. A community of single units, each trapped in their individual bubbles, rattling along together, knocking against translucent, perfectly round cages. Their movements are similar, but separate. They constitute a complex system, they are a mass.

In its automatic-arbitrary autonomy, Segal’s machine has no regard for the significance of its motion, motion neither positive nor negative. Statistically speaking, the longer the coin gets tossed and the various forces remain at play, the action averages out but the variance increases: in most cases, it stays close to the average, but over time the probability of reaching the extremes rises.

Segal, an artist that began career path in the fields of computer science and biology, translates information and complex systems into physical spaces. She deals in the questions of existence in the age of Big Data by materializing them. And when data is tangible, when we can stand beside it, study it with our own eyes, we may learn something about ourselves, about free will and the choice of this time – right now.

In her work, Segal attempts to control the uncontrollable, to regulate the arbitrary, to contain excess complexity. She is well aware how impossible this is, but nevertheless continues. And why not? Knowing something is impossible has never stopped us from wanting it. This desire is a raw substance, a catastrophe, and also life. What has been shall remain, and what was done will continue to be done. Unless we choose otherwise.

Solo exhibition

Opens on January 12th, 8:00pm

Participating Artists:

Events with the Exhibition:

Partners:

Archived

from2023-10-04->>till2023-10-04

Evening: A place for things to happen

Sound Event

from2023-09-14->>till2023-09-14

Open residency: Wolfgang Obermair

14/9

7pm

from2023-09-13->>till2023-11-10

As the Crow Flies / Shmil Frankel

Solo Exhibition

Opening: September 14, 8:00 PM

from2023-09-01->>till2023-10-01

Daniel Rothbart

Residency Program

from2023-08-24->>till2023-08-24

from2023-08-17->>till2023-08-17

from2023-08-15->>till2023-08-15

from2023-08-08->>till2023-09-08

from2023-07-25->>till2023-07-25

PEZZ / concert

25/7

from2023-06-22->>till2023-06-22

Cocoons & Drafts

Open studios event at The Artists Residence

22/6/23

from2023-06-02->>till2023-07-18

Centrepiece / Doria Sahra & Eran Inbar

Closing 25/7/2023

from2023-05-18->>till2023-05-18

Oy Division 18/05

Backyard performance at the residence

from2023-05-11->>till2023-05-11

Bowed Harp / Shaul Kohn

May 11th 2023

Gallery Gig

from2023-04-09->>till2023-04-09

9/4 Cooper Moore & Friends - Performance

Backyard performance

Yodfat St. 7, Herzliya

from2023-03-02->>till2023-05-31

Nicole Weniger

from2023-02-08->>till2023-05-15

Maya Dikstein & Mar~Yãm Volfzon

Residency Program

from2022-12-30->>till2022-12-09

Aki Sasamoto

Residency

from2022-12-21->>till2023-03-21

Ovidiu Anton

Residency for Austrian artists

from2022-12-19->>till2023-01-05

Yael Bratana

Residency

from2022-12-15->>till2023-01-04

Jasmin Vardi

Residency Program

from2022-11-12->>till2023-01-10

White Peacock / Leigh Orpaz

Solo show

Opening: Saturday 19/11/2022, 20:00

from2022-10-13->>till2023-01-05

Irena Eden & Stijn Lernout

Residency for Austrian artists

from2022-08-30->>till2022-08-30

MALOX / End of summer liftoff

Garden gig to celeate the publishing of the artist book "Portals and Commodities" by Elad Larom

from2022-08-18->>till2022-08-18

from2022-08-11->>till2022-08-11

Medamem

A special performance inside “North Tribune, South Tribune”.

11/8, 3pm-8pm

from2022-08-02->>till2022-08-02

Alon Eder / Garden Gig

2/8/2022

20:30

from2022-08-01->>till2022-09-15

Shaul Kohn

from2022-07-06->>till2022-09-02

Alexandra Berlinger

Residency for Austrian artists

from2022-07-05->>till2022-08-30

Martin Wagner

Residency for Austrian artists

from2022-07-02->>till2022-09-07

North Tribune, South Tribune / Roy Cohen

Solo Exhibition

Opening: July 16, 5:30pm

from2022-06-23->>till2022-06-23

7,5,4,1

Garden Gig

23/6/22, 8pm

In honor of the publication of Elad Larom's artist book

"Portals and Commodities"

from2022-06-11->>till2022-06-11

A very Lali and Tali talk

from2022-06-10->>till2022-06-10

from2022-06-01->>till2022-09-15

Ralo Mayer

Residency for Austrian Artists

from2022-05-18->>till2022-05-31

Anja Manfredi

Residency for Austrian artists

from2022-05-17->>till2022-06-30

Sebastian Reis

Residency for Austrian artists

from2022-05-17->>till2022-07-04

Bernhard Rappold

Residency for Austrian artists

from2022-05-11->>till2022-07-09

Mom / Lali Fruheling

Opening: May 14, 8pm

Curator: Tali Ben-Nun

from2022-04-23->>till2022-04-23

All about fairy tails

Discussion

Dr. Hanna Livnat, Sharon Kantor and Alina Orlov

from2022-04-09->>till2022-04-09

Season of the Withcg

Garden Live Gigs

Cafe Yodfat - Residency for Israeli artists

from2022-03-08->>till2022-05-02

Zohar Shafir

Cafe Yodfat

A residency program for Israeli artists

from2022-02-22->>till2022-05-01

I set Frank Barcelona on fire / Alina Orlov

Solo Exhibition

3/3/2022-23/4/2022

Curator: Ran Kasmy Ilan

Cafe Yodfat - Residency for Israeli Artists

from2022-01-20->>till2022-02-14

Olivia Hild

Residency Program

from2022-01-01->>till2022-03-05

Alina Orlov

from2021-12-27->>till2022-02-12

All Things Must Pass / Elad Larom

Solo Exhibition

30/12/2021-17/2/2022

Curator: Ran Kasmy Ilan

Opening: December 30th, 8pm

from2021-10-23->>till2021-12-12

And if there's no sea, then there's also no boat 

23/10/2021-11/12/2021

Curator: Ran Kasmy Ilan

8:00 pm

from2021-10-19->>till2022-05-31

Cafe Yodfat

from2021-10-14->>till2021-12-31

Keren Bergman

Cafe Yodfat

Residency Program for Israeli Artists

from2021-10-01->>till2021-12-17

Itay Marom

from2021-08-19->>till2021-10-16

Noa Giniger

Residency Program

from2021-07-31->>till2021-07-31

To meet another singular person

A talk with Shai Ignatz and Leah Abir

31/7/2021, 11:00am

from2021-07-10->>till2021-07-31

Anna Perach

Residency Program

from2021-06-19->>till2021-08-14

Jo / Shai Ignatz

Solo Exhibition

Curator: Leah Abir

19/6-7/8

from2021-05-15->>till2021-05-15

Singing is Infectious / Zohar & Alex

Zohar Shafir & Alex Jonovic

5/6, 6pm

from2021-04-28->>till2021-04-28

Singing is Infectious / Shaul Kohn

from2021-04-10->>till2021-04-10

Singing is infectious / Maya Dikstein

BLAST 3:2

from2021-04-01->>till2021-05-31

(Rain Machine (360° natural white noise soothing machine

from2021-03-21->>till2021-05-31

Maya Dikstein

Residency Program

from2021-03-20->>till2021-06-06

Maya Dunietz / Five Chilling Mammoths

Solo Exhibition

Curator: Ran Kasmy Ilan

20/3/2021-22/5/2021

from2021-03-08->>till2021-06-23

Dor Even Chen

Residency Program

from2020-09-16->>till2020-10-16

118 on 34

Ran Nahmias

An electromagnetic show

16/9/2020

from2020-08-27->>till2020-09-30

Avi Sabah

Residency program

from2020-08-19->>till2020-08-19

SONOLODGE

on 34

acoustic improve Solo by Eyal Talmudi

19/8/2020

19:00, 20:30

from2020-07-30->>till2020-10-15

34 / Moshe Roas

Solo Exhibition

Curator: Bar Yerushalmi

Starting August 8

from2020-06-04->>till2020-08-31

Permanent Vacation

Not an Unpaid Leave

Online project for time of pandemic

from2020-05-01->>till2020-08-28

Dana Lev Livnat

Residency Program

from2020-02-29->>till2020-07-31

Morning Noon Evening / Efrat Klipshtein

25/5/2020-25/7/2020

Curator: Ran Kasmy Ilan

from2020-02-29->>till2020-02-29

TECHNOPOLITICS

29/2/2020

18:00

from2020-02-28->>till2020-02-28

New Life

A talk with designer Dana Cohen

28/2/2020

12:30

from2020-02-26->>till2020-03-02

Felix Stalder

Residency for Austrian artists

from2020-02-26->>till2020-03-02

Doron Goldfarb

Residency for Austrian artists

from2020-02-24->>till2020-03-03

Volkmar Klien

Residency for Austrian artists

from2020-02-19->>till2020-02-24

Lea Mauas

from2020-02-15->>till2020-02-15

Beauty and pollution / A Talk

Asaf Ariel, Einat Arif Galanti and Sally Haftel Naveh

15/2/2020, 11:00

from2020-01-23->>till2020-03-07

Sunshine / Einat Arif -Galanti

Solo Exhibition

Curator: Sally Haftel Naveh

23/1/2020-2/3/2020

Curator: Sally Haftel Naveh

Opens on January 23, 08:00pm

from2020-01-02->>till2020-04-06

Sylvia Eckermann

Residency for Austrian Artists

from2020-01-01->>till2020-04-04

Gerald Nestler

from2019-11-01->>till2020-01-31

Anat Barzilai

Residency Program

from2019-10-11->>till2019-12-31

The Final Frontier

Group Exhibition

26/10/19-31/12/19

Curator: Ran Kasmy Ilan

from2019-10-01->>till2020-01-11

Elvedin Klačar

Residency for Austrian Artists

from2019-09-19->>till2019-09-19

from2019-09-11->>till2019-09-22

Susanne Schuda

Schudini the Sensitive

from2019-09-07->>till2019-09-07

Arenas of action

A talk with Tal Golani

7/9/19, 11:00

from2019-08-01->>till2019-09-01

Galit Eilat

from2019-07-13->>till2019-09-14

Sliding Door / Tal Golani

Solo exhibition

20/7/19-14/9/19

from2019-07-02->>till2019-07-02

The entrepreneur as god and the ghost in the machine

from2019-07-02->>till2019-09-30

Peter Szely

Residency for Austrian artists

from2019-06-15->>till2019-06-15

Cold Intimacy with Virtual Assistant

15/6

11:00

from2019-05-17->>till2019-07-13

NewSpeak / Lior Zalmanson

Solo exhibition

1/6/19-13/7/19

from2019-05-17->>till2019-05-17

MALOX / Garden Gig

17/5/19

12:00pm -Opening doors

12:30pm - Show

from2019-05-15->>till2019-05-15

Yossi Zabari / Bleeding Herat - the show

Garden Show, 15/5/19

Opening doors - 8:00pm

Show - 8:30pm

from2019-05-15->>till2019-05-15

Givat Hasofer -Documentation and identity

15.5, 19:00

from2019-05-13->>till2019-05-17

Running up that hill

Performances, events, and conversations about the hill of the Herzliya Artists' Residence and Nordau Community Pool

13,15,17/5/19

from2019-05-13->>till2019-05-13

Grove Sound / Volkov, Fishof, Kantor, Oppenheim

13/5/19, 18:30

from2019-04-27->>till2019-04-27

A pope, a female police officer and a terrorist

A talk with Ruti De Vries and Tali Ben-Nun

27/4/19

from2019-04-11->>till2019-03-19

Lithuanian Story: Lina Lapelyte

Candy Shop and Other Dances

from2019-04-10->>till2019-04-10

Nico Teen

from2019-03-30->>till2019-06-30

Heidi Schatzl

Residency for Austrian artists

from2019-03-10->>till2019-02-06

I saw a lot of people in the street, one of them asked me what time it was / Ruti De Vries

Solo Exhibition

Curator: Tali Ben Nun

23/3/19-4/5/19

from2019-03-02->>till2019-03-03

A talk with Liat Segal

from2019-01-02->>till2019-03-31

Johann Lurf

from2018-12-31->>till2019-02-06

Vita Eruhimovitz

from2018-12-13->>till2018-12-13

Tectonics 6

A Festival for new music

Thursday, December 13th, 8:30pm

Admission free

from2018-12-11->>till2018-12-20

Frieder Butzmann

טקטוניקס 6

from2018-12-07->>till2018-12-17

Charles Ross

from2018-10-18->>till2018-11-08

Gintarė Minelgaitė

GoraParasit

from2018-10-10->>till2018-12-08

Always Duty Free

Group exhibition

27/10-2018 - 6/12/2018

from2018-10-08->>till2018-12-31

Lucas Norer

Residency for Austrian artists

from2018-10-06->>till2018-10-06

Noam Rotem / Acoustic

Special show at the garden

6/10/2018, 20:30

from2018-08-18->>till2018-08-18

Lingers on the corporeal border

A talk with Jasmin Vardi

from2018-07-01->>till2018-08-02

Izik Badash

Residency Program

from2018-07-01->>till2018-09-30

Wilhelm Scherübl

Residency for Austrian artists

from2018-06-16->>till2018-08-31

Hyper-Intention / Jasmin Vardi

Solo Exhibition

5/7/18-20/9/18

from2018-06-12->>till2018-06-12

Born in Deir Yassin

Special screening and a talk with director Neta Shoshani / 12/16/2018, 20:00

from2018-05-06->>till2018-06-09

The Coastal Spray Zone #2

Efrat Galnoor

from2018-05-01->>till2018-05-31

Irina Birger

Residency Program

from2018-04-25->>till2018-05-08

Gina Haller, Nadia Migdal

Residency Program

from2018-03-31->>till2018-06-30

Jennifer Mattes

Residency for Austrian artists

from2018-03-05->>till2018-03-15

Paulina Pukytė

from2018-02-21->>till2018-05-05

Dead Honyes

Group Exhibition

Opens on Saturday, March 10, 8pm

from2018-02-20->>till2018-05-31

Lisa Kudoke

from2018-02-17->>till2018-02-17

Real Daughter

A talk with Efrat Vital

from2018-01-05->>till2018-03-31

Lotte Lyon

Residency

from2018-01-01->>till2019-12-31

Residency Program: Austrian Artists

from2017-12-16->>till2018-02-21

Winnie (Real Daughter) / Efrat Vital

Solo Exhibition

06.01.2018-21.02.2018

from2017-12-07->>till2017-12-14

Jaan Toomik

from2017-12-03->>till2017-12-03

Tectonics 5

Lina Lapelyte, Pierre Berthet, Mik Quantius with Alex Drool Yonovic

3.12.17

20:00

from2017-11-28->>till2017-10-05

Lina Lapelyte

Tectonics Festival

from2017-11-28->>till2017-12-05

Mik Quantius

from2017-11-28->>till2017-12-05

Pierre Berthet

Tectonics Festival

from2017-10-28->>till2017-10-28

Nothingness to no one

A talk with Yair Barak

from2017-09-09->>till2017-11-25

Continents and Faces / Yair Barak

Solo exhibition

9.9.2017-25.11.2017

from2017-06-27->>till2017-07-31

Still Life, Live Data

A new research by Shenkar College, the Inspire Lab for Image Research, and the Sorbonne

Opens on 08/07/2017

from2017-06-01->>till2017-06-30

Tal Shamir

from2017-05-05->>till2017-05-21

Ilya Rabinovich

from2017-04-27->>till2017-06-20

The Arnolfinis / Orit Adar Bechar

Solo Exhibition

2017 - 20/06/2017

from2017-04-25->>till2017-04-30

Dr. Reynaldo Anderson

Tohu Magazine Conference

from2017-04-01->>till2017-04-01

These are sculptures from nothing cause there's nothing

Artist Talk with Roy Menachem Markovich

from2017-03-07->>till2017-03-15

Axel Knost, Karin Redlich

Collaboration with "Harishonim" high school Herzliya

from2017-02-11->>till2017-04-29

from2017-02-10->>till2017-02-25

Anna Bromley and Ofri Lapid

from2017-01-07->>till2017-01-07

Artist Talk with Meir Tati and Eyal Assulin

Saturday, January 7, 11am

from2016-11-22->>till2017-01-28

Look at me

Meir Tati, Eyal Assulin

12/3/2016-1/28/2017

from2016-10-22->>till2016-10-22

Saturday morning at the gallery

from2016-09-24->>till2016-11-12

Follies | Elisheva Levy

Solo Exhibition

24/9/2016-12/11/2016

from2016-09-13->>till2016-11-30

Netally Scholsser

from2016-09-03->>till2016-09-12

gym

An interdisciplinary think and do group

from2016-08-13->>till2016-08-13

Saturday morning at the gallery

from2016-07-21->>till2016-09-03

Threshold

Curator: Ran Kasmy Ilan

7/21-9/3/2016

from2016-07-05->>till2016-07-20

Lior Zalmanson

from2016-05-21->>till2016-07-02

What's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget

Curator: Ran Kasmy Ilan

5/21-6/25/2016

from2016-03-26->>till2016-03-26