Where's this tape?
In the Sampling Space project Animal With No Name creates interactive presentations based on samples and loops.

As Web-specific art Sampling Space is an exercise of bandwidth economy. In the Web environment the most effective way--and for users with slow connections the only viable way--to have events happen over a period of time on the screen is to use loops. And the smallest element from which a loop can be created is a sample. Sampling Space is made of looped QuickTime movies.

Due to the relatively early stage of development of QuickTime for the Web and to the multiplicity of platforms running Web browsers from several companies the speed at which the animated sequences loop varies. Although it is not possible for the player to keep track of all those variations she can easily notice when the sequences are looping synchronously and when they are looping asynchronously. The threshold between synchronous and asynchronous becomes a point of reference from which actions (either starting or stopping a Sampling Space loop) can be taken. The player then enters a game in which she determines the rules.

Sampling Space is about delays and correspondances. The player is invited to explore the relationship between the sounds and the images presented on each page. The visual part is usually made of several elements that can be started and stopped at will.

After listening to a sound loop for a while its meaning shifts. In other words the player's interpretation of the sound changes and from there the meaning of the sound evolves. The meaning of the sound shifts one step further when one starts playing with the animated sequences by starting and stopping them. As an infinity of combinations of image and sound loops can be generated, every player adapts Sampling Space to his or her own mood.

Inspirations for Sampling Space comes from techno music and the result is very ambient. Some players think of Sampling Space as a tool for meditation. Others compare it to a techno Etch-A-Sketch.