MONTE CARLO Simulation or Ingwar and FreyaDubravko Kuhta Tesla (HR)

model of a city, 2009

The project addresses concepts from probability and statistics. Simulation is a quantitative method most often used to solve problems with events the occurrence of which is stochastic. Simulation constitutes an approach to the solution of operational problems in which we put parameters of a real problem situation of some system into a mathematical model which, on the basis of the values input, determines possible states that the system can accept. The simulation itself does not give a concrete solution to the problem, rather the results constitute information that is used as support in decision making.

This piece, instead of with a complex mathematical method, shows vividly by an experimental method the possible situations and possible solutions for a very complex dynamic problem: Sailor Ingwar has had excessive commerce with a bottle of red wine and is now trying to find his yacht Freya moored in the harbour.

A Monte Carlo Simulation is a name that was introduced in 1940 by John von Neumann (in Hungarian Margittai Neumann János Lajos) and Stanislaw Marcin Ulam as a method for the solution of determinist problems related to random numbers. The method was developed during World War II for the solution of complex problems in the construction of the atomic bomb. It is applied for deterministic problems that are hard to resolve, complex phenomena that are not well enough explored and statistical phenomena that have no analytical resolution.

The installation consists of a small model of the city of Zadar (the peninsula). From the starting point (the cellar bar Na po ure /At the half hour) the sailor Ingwar (represented by a small steel ball) endeavours to reach his yacht Freya. Since he has imbibed a remarkable quantity of red wine, the directions in which he moves are unpredictable, and the earth rocks beneath his feet. Since he can reach the Freya in various directions, but does not have to reach it, it is interesting to track these movements and the performance records. The ball roams around the streets of the model and most often ends up anywhere but at the yacht.

The model of the city is made of extruded polystyrene foam. The whole base, with three motors controlled by a fortuitous interference generator changes its position from the horizontal to slight slopes in all directions, which results in the movement of the steel ball in accidental directions. Each street that ends at the quay is equipped with an electromechanical counter that counts up the times the ball passes the point. There is also a counter mounted at the exit from the bar and there is one on the yacht. By a comparison of the states of the individual counters, we can decide whether Ingmar has gone overboard with the red wine or whether Zadar has too many outlets to the sea.

Dubravko Kuhta Tesla (HR)

I was born many years ago during the past millennium, in 1957, in a small city under Mt. Medvednica which has grown into a metropolis in the meantime. For my sixth birthday I was given my first model train, which I took apart to see how it worked. This event proved to be crucial. Afterwards I took apart a huge pile of toys and some more expensive stuff, which I further used to put together my “inventions.” And I have done so ever since to the present days (except that today I rarely dismantle anything that still functions!). These ideas together with my claim that “nothing except teleportation is unfeasible today, and that it is just a question of how much money one is ready to invest into the realization,” are what brought me into collaboration with numerous artists and institutions in order to solve apparently unsolvable problems. Besides “solving” a few big and a few smaller exhibitions in Zagreb and abroad (Zdravo budi!, Here Tomorrow, Sao Paolo Biennial, Venice Biennial, architecture Biennial in Venice...). I was a sound engineer at Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall for many years and have designed multimedia space projects. Finally, I have ended up at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, the Department for Animated Film and New Media. In my free time I experiment with Kinetic Art, sometimes I even get prizes for it. Some of my last
experiments were shown at major Croatian exhibitions like The Triennial of Croatian
Sculpture, Croatian Drawing Triennial, Device_ Art, T-HTaward@msu.hr...