Information Overload Unit

Information Overload Unit

Year: 
1981
Duration: 
41:42 min
Edition: 
2012
SPK. Information Overload Unit
SPK. Information Overload Unit

With the expanded and intensified use of the Internet the fear of information overload has begun to spread in technological discourse. The fear is that the “weight” of the enormous amount of information that computer systems produce and users consume will eventually lead to the breakdown not only of the users but of the systems themselves. The brutality of this overload and breakdown was envisioned and expressed in sound by the Australian group SPK when they released their debut album Information Overload Unit (1981), featuring a cover image of a man having his brain worked on through a hole in his skull. With its industrial aesthetics of high-pitched noise, deep drones and nihilistic references to contested political events the album consists of two sides entitled “Face ULTRA” and “Face HYPER” respectively and includes tracks such as “Stammheim Torturkammer,” “Berufsverbot” and “Retard”. Long before the Internet penetrated the skulls of its users with the promise of unlimited information the album embedded the notion of information overload in a disorienting and dirty darkness.

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