SAP wanted to find a plausible and impressive way of demonstrating how modern software is intelligent enough to deal with “information overkill” and came up with a spectacular solution. The “bit.code” machine.

Julius Popp's idea was to show how an unlimited variety of meanings can be created from a very limited number of elements in a very rigid mechanical setup - and how from a seeming chaos of fragmented data, suddenly coherent information emerges. Thus, he arrived at the design of bit.code: A number of identical chains with a fixed order of black and white elements. Variation only occurs when these chains move individually to create black and white pixel patterns - most of which make no sense at all to the human eye, while some contain readable words: Keywords filtered from news websites, the smallest conceivable real-time snapshot from the mighty stream of online conversations.

“Bit code” was exhibited in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and other international museums. The exhibitions and the extensive and positive media publicity meant that many art lovers and IT experts now see SAP Business Software in a new light.