Julius Popp (born 1973, Nuremberg) is an artist based in Leipzig.
His work often uses technology,[1] resulting in interdisciplinary ventures which reach across the boundaries of art and science.[2] An example of Popp's work is Bitfall (2005):[3] a machine which displays words selected from the internet via drops of falling water in precise configuration, each word visible only for a second.[4] A bit.fall installation was at the London 2012 Olympic Park under the footbridge between the main entrance and stadium, the words generated using water from the Waterworks River were chosen at random from internet news feeds.[5]
Popp studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig and he won the Robot Choice Award in 2003.[6] The Fraunhofer Institute IAIS, Bonn, and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT have both studied elements of Popp's work which made unique advances in the field of artificial intelligence.[2]
Bit.Flow is one project done by Julius Popp between 2004 and 2008 in Leipzig. Navigating through the modern world is no longer linear: the thread can no longer serve as a model to describe it. In Bit.flow dozens of small particles make up a chaotic swarm of bits, which are the smallest pieces of information. This installation illustrates how each of the individual elements has no significance in itself but acquires it only in terms of the group, within the framework of swarm interaction.[7]
