Metrica, 2023

Thermal receipt printer; 10-year thermal receipt paper; WiFi router; circuit-breaker box with outlets; desk lamp; building management system (BMS) lighting controls; custom BMS software with AI text analysis and synthesis; Lithuanian Metrika vols. 1 (1380-1584) and 25 (1387-1546); texts of Lithuanian legislation concerning post-soviet privatization and land reform (1991-1997).

Dipping into a pool of text sourced from Lithuanian state archives, records and bureaucratic documents of property from the 14th-17th centuries and 1990s post-Soviet land reform, "Metrica" (2023) revolves around the psychic malfunctioning of a building management system. Flicking the lights on and off at random, the system (controlled by a large language model) obsessively sorts through these historical texts – which it seems to have mistaken for its own memories – producing an endless cascade of receipts in the process. The receipts document the system’s attempts to self-describe its fragmented memories. Rippling outward from the receipt printer, the reading room itself become an extension of the building’s psychic, literary struggle: the library falls into a liminal state of transition, either going into or coming out of a state of deep storage; certain books seem to have lost their sense of stability, as text and images slide off dust jackets at oblique angles; a strange photograph of an excavated cellar floats on the wall; and the video on the monitor is stuck in a loop of perpetual dawn or twilight; all drenched in a day-for-night effect.

Rupert, Vilnius, LT
Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter

Video documentation of installation.
Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Metrica, 2023, Thermal receipt printer; 10-year thermal receipt paper; WiFi router; circuit-breaker box with outlets; desk lamp; building management system (BMS) lighting controls; custom BMS software with AI text analysis and synthesis; Lithuanian Metrika vols. 1 (1380-1584) and 25 (1387-1546); texts of Lithuanian legislation concerning post-soviet privatization and land reform (1991-1997)., Dipping into a pool of text sourced from Lithuanian state archives, records and bureaucratic documents of property from the 14th-17th centuries and 1990s post-Soviet land reform,
Installation documentation
Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Metrica, 2023, Thermal receipt printer; 10-year thermal receipt paper; WiFi router; circuit-breaker box with outlets; desk lamp; building management system (BMS) lighting controls; custom BMS software with AI text analysis and synthesis; Lithuanian Metrika vols. 1 (1380-1584) and 25 (1387-1546); texts of Lithuanian legislation concerning post-soviet privatization and land reform (1991-1997)., Dipping into a pool of text sourced from Lithuanian state archives, records and bureaucratic documents of property from the 14th-17th centuries and 1990s post-Soviet land reform,
Detail view of receipts
Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Metrica, 2023, Thermal receipt printer; 10-year thermal receipt paper; WiFi router; circuit-breaker box with outlets; desk lamp; building management system (BMS) lighting controls; custom BMS software with AI text analysis and synthesis; Lithuanian Metrika vols. 1 (1380-1584) and 25 (1387-1546); texts of Lithuanian legislation concerning post-soviet privatization and land reform (1991-1997)., Dipping into a pool of text sourced from Lithuanian state archives, records and bureaucratic documents of property from the 14th-17th centuries and 1990s post-Soviet land reform,
Detail view of receipts
Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Metrica, 2023, Thermal receipt printer; 10-year thermal receipt paper; WiFi router; circuit-breaker box with outlets; desk lamp; building management system (BMS) lighting controls; custom BMS software with AI text analysis and synthesis; Lithuanian Metrika vols. 1 (1380-1584) and 25 (1387-1546); texts of Lithuanian legislation concerning post-soviet privatization and land reform (1991-1997)., Dipping into a pool of text sourced from Lithuanian state archives, records and bureaucratic documents of property from the 14th-17th centuries and 1990s post-Soviet land reform,
Detail view of receipts
Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Metrica, 2023, Thermal receipt printer; 10-year thermal receipt paper; WiFi router; circuit-breaker box with outlets; desk lamp; building management system (BMS) lighting controls; custom BMS software with AI text analysis and synthesis; Lithuanian Metrika vols. 1 (1380-1584) and 25 (1387-1546); texts of Lithuanian legislation concerning post-soviet privatization and land reform (1991-1997)., Dipping into a pool of text sourced from Lithuanian state archives, records and bureaucratic documents of property from the 14th-17th centuries and 1990s post-Soviet land reform,
Detail view of installation
Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Metrica, 2023, Thermal receipt printer; 10-year thermal receipt paper; WiFi router; circuit-breaker box with outlets; desk lamp; building management system (BMS) lighting controls; custom BMS software with AI text analysis and synthesis; Lithuanian Metrika vols. 1 (1380-1584) and 25 (1387-1546); texts of Lithuanian legislation concerning post-soviet privatization and land reform (1991-1997)., Dipping into a pool of text sourced from Lithuanian state archives, records and bureaucratic documents of property from the 14th-17th centuries and 1990s post-Soviet land reform,
Detail view of installation
Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Metrica, 2023, Thermal receipt printer; 10-year thermal receipt paper; WiFi router; circuit-breaker box with outlets; desk lamp; building management system (BMS) lighting controls; custom BMS software with AI text analysis and synthesis; Lithuanian Metrika vols. 1 (1380-1584) and 25 (1387-1546); texts of Lithuanian legislation concerning post-soviet privatization and land reform (1991-1997)., Dipping into a pool of text sourced from Lithuanian state archives, records and bureaucratic documents of property from the 14th-17th centuries and 1990s post-Soviet land reform,
Detail view of installation
Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, Metrica, 2023, Thermal receipt printer; 10-year thermal receipt paper; WiFi router; circuit-breaker box with outlets; desk lamp; building management system (BMS) lighting controls; custom BMS software with AI text analysis and synthesis; Lithuanian Metrika vols. 1 (1380-1584) and 25 (1387-1546); texts of Lithuanian legislation concerning post-soviet privatization and land reform (1991-1997)., Dipping into a pool of text sourced from Lithuanian state archives, records and bureaucratic documents of property from the 14th-17th centuries and 1990s post-Soviet land reform,
Detail view of installation