Man OS 1 / extraordinateur is a performance that represents on a huge screen the inner workings of a PC in real human form. On a stage, Mister Processor carries out the commands of a user: he executes programs, manages the operating system and interacts with a mouse pointer. Added digitally during postproduction, the pointer symbolizes the user who remains invisible throughout the film.

Projection on the monitor and uploading data from the internet

After the computer has been started, an e-mail arrives from Hans Holbein the Younger. He invites the computer user to smarten up the figures in The Ambassadors painting. Using Photoshop, one of the figure’s beards is shaven off. Along with the e-mail, a virus has infiltrated the system in the form of a “bug”, so the character Norton Disk Doctor examines the Processor and finally finds the virus.

Hotmail bring an email and working on an image in the Photoshop studio

On the Internet the Processor encounters H, T, M and L, who are responsible for the configuration of the page. Together they visit a ping-pong page, a film page and a few erotic pages. In an Internet shop the Processor buys some new accessories. During a game of PacMan, the Processor is knocked down by ghosts. While burning the new version of Holbein’s painting on a CD, the “Toaster” catches fire and SETI reveals that the figures in the painting are extraterrestrial. This is all too much for the Processor and the system crashes.

A work by Roland Seidel and Achim Stiermann.

Loads of funny images in this PDF.

Honorary mention at Prix Ars Electronica 2005, computer animation/visual effects.