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Organ for a Computer - Isabel Merchante



Binary Music / Machine Language / Ephemeral Archives / Acoustic Translation / Human–Machine Empathy / Information Opacity                               
words by h.y.lan   6th Sep 2025



Organ for a computer (2025), Isabel Merchante. Medium: Installation. Modules with mechanical components, electronic circuit, generative program of binary music, metacrylate.
Courtesy of Isabel Merchante and Purist Magazine.

Organ for a Computer is an artwork exploring the materialisation and ephemerality of data. It transforms the language of machines—encrypted binary melodies—into bubbles: visible to human perception, yet equally unstable. This translation raises a question: across the gulf between human and machine communication, how is data truly perceived? How do we confront the fleeting, unstable “memories” of the digital realm?



Organ for a computer (2025), Isabel Merchante. Medium: Installation. Modules with mechanical components, electronic circuit, generative program of binary music, metacrylate.
Courtesy of Isabel Merchante and Purist Magazine.


Most data is not created for humans, but for exchanges between machines. Such “black-boxed” information flows have lost their immediacy. Here, algorithmically generated melodies (auditory data) are not rendered as sound but transmuted into matter—bubbles. This is a poetic interpretation of data’s cross-media transformation. The bubble, as a carrier, embodies transience and fragility, mirroring the volatility of both memory and digital information.

By employing bubbles, the work underscores data’s impermanence, dismantling the technological myth that equates data with eternal storage.

Physically, bubbles are playful and aesthetically pleasing, yet they also signify the fragility and disappearance of information—reminding us of the asymmetry in human–machine cognition. The “organ” with its religious gravity, contrasts sharply with the bubble’s lightness and brevity, suggesting that the supposed “sacredness” of the digital age dissolves into fluidity.


Organ for a computer (2025), Isabel Merchante. Medium: Installation. Modules with mechanical components, electronic circuit, generative program of binary music, metacrylate.
Courtesy of Isabel Merchante and Purist Magazine.




Isabel Merchante (Madrid, 1999) is a visual artist. 
Alumni of the Royal College of Art in London and the UFV in Madrid, she is currently pursuing an MFA in Computational Arts at Goldsmiths, supported by one of "la Caixa" Foundation Postgraduate Fellowships Abroad. She has exhibited at institutions such as Tate Modern (London), Camden Art Centre (London), Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid), La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Círculo de Bellas Artes (Madrid), MARCO (Vigo), Cidade da Cultura de Galicia (Santiago de Compostela), CAMT (Tetouan) and Fondazione Pastificio Cerere (Rome). Awards and recognitions include the Generación 2025 Prize, the Circuitos de Artes Plásticas Prize, the We: Now First Prize in Visual Arts, the Re: Humanism Second Prize, the LEA (Lab of Experimental Art) Residency, and the Tate x AnthropicAl Residency.



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