This piece was made as a response to a proliferation of "interactive" art pieces, where the actual audience participation involved nothing more than pushing buttons to start a series of events. Flood reverses that interaction, asking the audience to press the button, temporarily stopping the machine, and helping to stem the flow of scribbled-on paper. The action of pressing the button is reminiscent of the story of the Dutch Boy sticking his finger in the dike to stop the flood: of some value, but ultimately futile.

I have also made a web version based on the same idea: Push the Button

Flood is very simple, technically. It is run by a Basic Stamp generating pseudo-random numbers and controlling two motors. The paper is fed by parts of an old printer. Pressing the button stops all the motors, rendering the machine temporarily lifeless and silent.