Netart, Installation

Barbie´s pool heated by Chipland

The Graphic Projecting Unit (GPU) of your computer is currently heating Barbie´s swimming pool.

Enter Chipland here:  Museum in Progress (MIP)

In the exhibition space, there is a QR code for the visitors to scan and enter the Website "Chipland".  As physical piece in the exhibition there is an installation/ sculpture:  A Barbie  swimming pool on a white pedestal. Heat pipes lead to the pool. These heat pipes are connected to GPUs (Graphic Processor Units) that perform live calculations.  Hot steam rises from the pool periodically.

Visitors to the exhibition access the Chipland website via the QR code. Chipland belongs to Barbie. In Chipland, visitors learn which chip is built into their mobile devices. The name of their chip appears on a flag, because as soon as visitors enter Chipland, they make a claim. Their flag then flies over Chipland. Chipland's terrestrial plate consists of a brightly iridescent dual-use silicate wafer that is still undiced. A wafer is the basis of every chip.  Dual-use goods are goods produced for both civilian and military purposes. The flag flies over its territory, and this movement is calculated live by the chip. On the website, visitors can navigate to the most important geopolitical players in the semiconductor industry.  Amongst them the Dutch wafer company ASML, or Morris Chang, the founder of the global monopoly in sub-7-nanometer AI chip manufacturing, represent the entities in Chipland. Barbie designs her Chipland much like Barbieland, according to her own rules. Something as important as a hairbrush is very large in Barbieland. In Chipland, a flag can be as big as the ASML machine. The visitor's mobile device is already slowly warming up due to the computing power required to visit the website.

Barbie cleverly uses this computing power for her swimming pool. She channels the waste heat from the processing GPUs  directly into the pool via precious metals, allowing her to enjoy cocktails 24/7 in pleasantly warm and steaming water.

PDF Chipland (DE, EN will follow soon)

Materials: Flag with GPU designation, Chipland rainbow, Barbie font, tag cloud, ASML machine, wafer

Kathrin Stumreich, Philip Leitner, Chipland, 2025, digital mip, raising flags, museum in progress