Predictive Modelling

Installation at Global Imaginations, Leiden, NL (2015)

Predictive Modelling consists of approximately 3000 unbaked hand-made bone-like clay objects mixed up with 1200 industrially produced binary metal coins.

“Scattered on the floor are objects from clay and metal. The clay shapes are handmade and appear to be part of a study into the creation of a functional tool. Which decisions does someone take on a search like this? Can you predict what the next step will be in the development of a given implementation? It’s certainly grounded in uncertainty, humanity, and a desire for control.

Some of the clay shapes resemble the dragon bones used for divination in Ancient China. Seers would cast the bones on the floor and predict the future based on the combinations and relations between the shapes. The iron coins with holes shaped like ones and zeroes refer to our present-day, computer-generated forecasts. Are they more reliable, more valuable?”

– Text by Florette Dijkstra for Club Solo (2020)

This work is part of the installation titled Cultivating Probability. Cultivating Probability speculates and unites attitudes and rituals from different cultures and periods into a kind of fictional anthropological display. The installation consists of a collection of diverse objects, which are spread throughout the exhibition space, where some are susceptible to change and movement.