!["His work was exhibited at Kunsthalle Zurich, [...] among others."](https://welcometomywebsite.neopostmodern.com/images/8xae4KiDjCMkJkQL7.jpg "\"His work was exhibited at Kunsthalle Zurich, [...] among others.\"")
The installation revolves around coffee as a narrative and metaphorical device to explore the impact of automation and our agency in (ref)using it. Center piece is a visually exploded, yet functioning, fully automated coffee machine from the first commercially successful consumer machine design from 1985 – the aptly named Superautomatica by Saeco.
The coffee machine's transformation alludes to explosion drawings, like the ones that are still available for the Superautomatica given its origin in a time when such information was still commonly available.
Through its own transparency it highlights the importance of access and readability to give agency in a world of increasingly complex systems.
The video starts off as a stereotypical YouTube coffee machine tutorial or review. After a first introduction to the machine the actions and narrative diverge: Visually we see how the machine is disassembled, explained and ultimately repaired. In contrast, the spoken narrative and overlayed material trace the history of coffee, coffee machines and the coffee breaks to the viewers current situation: Why and to whose benefit are you taking a coffee break?
A Slice of the Pie by Sebastian Schmieg & Silvio Lorusso allowed anybody to upload images into six slices of a "pie" for a negligible fee and
[...] thus becoming full participants in the exhibition.
Therefore my work was exhibited at Kunsthalle Zürich in the exhibition DYOR, curated by Nina Roehrs, along with pizza time! by Ashiq Jahan Khondker from Jonas Lund's Paint Your Pizza.
This lecture performance weaves together and offers a roller coaster ride through meditative practices, the meaning crisis, the movie "Battleship Potemkin", compression methods, information theory, Schmidhuber's mathematical theory of aesthetics, post-conceptual art critiques of their supposed politicalness.
Everything compressed to the question: What is the feeling of "understanding"? And how does this feeling relate to producing and consuming art?
Virtual reality headset; 2021
with Ortrun Bargholz
Two plastic cardboard viewers contain a banknote each instead of smartphones. A 0 euro bill and a 100 euro bill, both printed by the same French press with motifs of what appears to be baroque architecture. However, the facades are not actually historical, but fabricated history. Is this the real virtual reality?
From Versprochene Realität:
Durch diese unerwartete Nutzung einer VR-Brille werden die Rezipient:innen mit der Frage konfrontiert, was überhaupt unter ‚virtueller Realität‘ zu verstehen ist. Die Bedeutung als etwas, das „nicht physisch vorhanden, sondern durch Software zum Erscheinen gebracht wird“1 im Sinne einer digital generierten 3D-Umgebung, etablierte sich erst mit zunehmender Verbreitung von Computern. Seit dem 15. Jahrhundert versteht man unter virtuell „dem Wesen oder der Wirkung nach etwas zu sein, wenn auch nicht wirklich oder faktisch“.2 So ist auch die Idee eines Nominalwertes von Geld vollkommen virtuell.
¹ „Virtual“. „not physically existing but made to appear by software“
2 „Virtual“. „being something in essence or effect, though not actually or in fact“
3 Debord, La société du spectacle, These 1. „Tout ce qui était directement vécu s’est éloigné dans une représentation.“
4 Baudrillard, Simulacres et simulation.
Manche Betrachter:innen der Arbeit mögen enttäuscht sein, da sie in der VR-Brille als Objekt bereits ein technologisches Versprechen sehen, das nicht erfüllt wird. Virtuelle Realität bietet die Arbeit allerdings reichlich: Geldscheine, fiktive Architektur auf Geldscheinen, historisierende Fassadenelemente auf einem Betonneubau, sowie historisierende Fassadenelemente auf Geldscheinen. Gemäß Guy Debords Verständnis in La société du spectacle (Die Gesellschaft des Spektakels) sind viele Elemente, die in früheren Gesellschaften direkt erlebt worden wären, unter modernen Produktionsbedingungen in eine Vorstellung beziehungsweise Repräsentation „entwichen“.3[...]Die auf den Geldscheinen abgebildeten Architekturen sind wahre Simulakra im Sinne Jean Baudrillards, denn sie gehen der Realität voraus.4
Laser color print on paper, 30×21cm
The pop-up window with a user survey ‘How is YouTube today?’ presented as a screenprint from 2019 offers strikingly affirmative answer options. In our feedback-obsessed society, to what extent can a survey be used to change a person's perception instead of asking about their satisfaction?
Engraved mirror, 60×47cm
This functioning feedback terminal is positioned at the exit of the exhibition as a ready-made without any labeling as an artwork. It closes the circle by subjecting the viewers and the exhibition to the same quantified evaluation principles. How was your visit today? Are you satisfied? And are you manipulatable by the green background?
Feedback terminal (ready-made) with custom print
The Princess realizes that she must move to Berlin when she visits the exhibition
"Vulnerable Subjects" in Leipzig. Fortunately, while looking for an apartment,
she meets Kasperle, who introduces her to the Wohnungsbot.
But even though the Wohnungsbot has already relieved countless people of the
symptoms of rent mania, this mission plunges the Wohnungsbot into a crisis of existence,
which not only makes him doubt prevailing narratives of automation.
The stage adaptation of the software "Wohnungsbot"
negotiates the possibilities and consequences of the attempt to solve social problems
with technical means.
with
Kasperle,
Prinzessin,
Krokodil,
Wohnungsbot
spoken by
Monika Freinberger (Kasperle, Prinzessin, Krokodil)
Marlene [AWS Polly] (Wohnungsbot)
Production
Daniel Hengst
Copy editing
Christopher Heyder
Art manufacturing
Ortrun Bargholz
Hallo, ich bin das Kasperle!
Ich möchte euch heute eine Geschichte erzählen. Sie wirkt vielleicht ein bisschen wie ein Märchen, denn viele wünschen sich ja, dass die Digitalisierung ein Märchen mit schön eindeutigen Verhältnissen wäre. Aber am Ende seht ihr, dass die Sache nicht so einfach ist...
Source code available on GitHub
The Wohnungsbot (appartment-bot) is a fully automated, personalized app to aleviate you from
the pain of searching a flat in Berlin.
By inverting logics of power it makes automation experiential and helps normal humans.
Download and more information at wohnungsbot.de.
No! It's just automation at work for an individual — which seems to be something that we're so unused to that it seems like a hack.
This the first work in the cycle Von einem der auszog eine Wohnung in Berlin zu finden. Ein Automatisierungsdrama in drei Akten (Of someone who went out to find a flat in Berlin. An automation-drama in three acts) was created for the exhibition Verletzbare Subjekte (Vulnerable subjects) at HGB Leipzig.
The banner heavily draws on Mladen Stilinović's "An artist who cannot speak English is no artist"1 (1992);
translated to the current housing tensionsin Germany, especially Leipzig and Berlin.
The slogan on one hand plays the myth on that artists are causing gentrification
and are therefore to blame2, while using an odd combination of
corporate3 and pseudo-subversive (which really is the new corporate) design language
to actually reach the people in the art school.
1 1992, see it among other works in WORDS-SLOGANS [on his website](https://mladenstilinovic.com/works/5-2/)
2 For an excellent discussion of this issue
(and many other housing/gentrification topics, partially specific to Berlin)
listen to Andrej Holm in [Alternativlos, Folge 40](http://alternativlos.org/40/) [de].
3 be.berlin campaign by [dan pearlman Group](https://danpearlman.com/en/work/campaign/),
implemented following the [official guidelines](https://www.designtagebuch.de/cd-manuals/be-berlin-styleguide.pdf).
It is driven by a script scouring "a popular apartment listing website", generating the postcards in realtime within seconds of the listing going online. A sound notification is played, urging you to take action.
Now! Time to become a succesful artist!
What you want (Was du willst) shows you what you want! A computer-generated voice speaks to you: "Therefore I would like to invite you to calm down for a moment and ask yourself: What do you really want?"
The multi-part installation guides the visitors through a highly orchestrated system of experiences. The system embraces the entire exhibition space: after registering, the 'user' is always in some relation and under control of the system. You wait, you are called, you lie down, you get up, you move on, you take your receipt. Everything is tracked, every step is based on the identification of the barcode obtained when registering. How long do you wait after registration until being called, until checking in for the first time? How long do you lie on the bean bag, your eyes covered with what looks like a VR-headset but is just darkness, your ears covered with an infinite low-intensity sound scape generator? How long do you stand in the generated virtual environment, what do you look at, for how long and what categories of items are being shown to you in response? How do you react to a statistical evaluation of your experiences, but also of your personality?
What you want (Was du willst) explores the promise of infinite and immediate availability anything desirable in digital consumerism. First the expectation of a high-fidelity VR experience is undercut with optical and auditive isolation through fake headsets and an ambient soundscape. Then one is confronted with a plethora of gaming assets that try to optimize for your attention. Finally you get a receipt detailing all your behavior and speculations about your personality.
Credits →
<emphasis><lang xml:lang="de-DE">Was du willst</lang></emphasis> asks the number <emphasis><say-as interpret-as="digits">%s</say-as></emphasis> to approach part 1, station <say-as interpret-as="character">%s</say-as>.<break /> Number <emphasis><say-as interpret-as="digits">%s</say-as></emphasis> please.
This is the last call by <emphasis><lang xml:lang="de-DE">Was du willst</lang></emphasis> for number <emphasis><say-as interpret-as="digits">%s</say-as></emphasis> <break />Please immediately proceed to part 1, station <say-as interpret-as="character">%s</say-as>.<break />Last call for <emphasis><say-as interpret-as="digits">%s</say-as></emphasis>
Please take the virtual reality headset and the headphones from the position marked with the letter <break time="0.1s" /> <say-as interpret-as="character">%s</say-as>.<break/>It's easier if you put on the headset first and then the headphones. Please make yourself comfortable on one of the bean-bags.
Welcome to part 1 of <emphasis><lang xml:lang="de-DE">Was du willst</lang></emphasis><break time="1s" />I am happy to have you here.<break />Please lay down on one of the bean-bags and make yourself comfortable. In the next 5 to 10 minutes I want to expose you to a stimuli reduction. I would kindly ask you not to take off the headset or the headphones until I ask you to do so.<break time="2s" />I am sure many things have already happened to you on this day. Therefore I would like to invite you to calm down for a moment and ask yourself: <emphasis>What do you really want?</emphasis>
Hello %s,<break />Part 2 is waiting for you. There will be everything you want.<break />Please take off the headphones and the headset now and put them back to the position marked with the letter <break time="0.1s" /> <say-as interpret-as="character">%s</say-as>.<break/>Don't forget to scan your barcode at the next computer before putting on the other headset.
We're about to start. Take your time to adjust the headset so that it sits comfortably and make sure the earpieces sit tight.
Hello {username}
Welcome to your 3 <phoneme alphabet="ipa" ph="diːː">D</phoneme> world.
Here everything just evolves around you, {username}.
I see you like {0}? No problem. I'm glad actually. I have a lot of that for you.
Glad you like it here. You can stay as long as you wish.
I'm also a big fan of {0}. We're a good match, {username}!
You don't like {0}? I'm sorry for that. But I'll find something else for you, don't worry. Out there I have hundreds of objects just waiting to amaze you.
Look, here comes {0}. It's also {1} - you do like that {username}, don't you?
This is something that would suit you: {0}
You can't get enough {username}. But don't worry, it will go on forever.
A world full of {0} just for {username}. That would be quite something, no?
Do you also ask yourself, why there are so many weapons here? Weird, isn't it? Somehow humans seem to like that.
{username}!<amazon:breath duration="long" volume="x-loud"/>Please return to the center!
You don't need to move, everything you want will come to you.
Performance, 2017
In this perfomance I put myself in the exhibition space for the opening wearing a custom-built eye tracker which showed in real-time where my gaze was directed, observable on screens attached to my augmented body.
![During the opening speech by the president Thomas Locher, view from behind [credit: Micha Dykta]](https://welcometomywebsite.neopostmodern.com/images/9YLt7jfmvtuoj7Hgf.jpeg "During the opening speech by the president Thomas Locher, view from behind [credit: Micha Dykta]")
»Wichtig ist auch, daß die Mimikry nicht unbedingt eine aufbegehrende oder auch nur bewußte Intentionalität voraussetzt. Im Gegenteil, sie kann Zeichen für eine völlig unbewußte Anpassung an die Bilder sein, über die das Subjekt üblicherweise von der Kamera bzw. dem Blickregime wahrgenommen wird.
Die Pose muß viel allgemeiner als fotografische Prägung des Körpers verstanden werden, derer sich das Subjekt nicht unbedingt bewußt ist: Sie kann das Resultat eines Bildes sein, das so oft auf den Körper projiziert worden ist, daß das Subjekt beginnt, sich sowohl psychisch wie auch körperlich mit ihm zu identifizieren. Dieses Bild ist im übrigen durchaus nicht immer schmeichelhaft oder lustvoll besetzt.«
![Front view during the performance, showing the eye tracker and the laptop screen attached to the body [credit: Julie Hart]](https://welcometomywebsite.neopostmodern.com/images/qYMtepj3j9GBDYdwt.jpg "Front view during the performance, showing the eye tracker and the laptop screen attached to the body [credit: Julie Hart]")
2 modified webcams and IR light source (attached to a custom-built head mount)
power outlet from wall attached to body (25 meter cord)
runs a modified version of Pupil
The performance Blickregime (sehen und gesehen werden) bridges the technological and social/physical space into a performance. This format creates an actual experience of gazing and being gazed upon, a fundamental advantage. Only in involuntarily forcing bystanders to take both sides it can be achieved to gain an understanding (and hence empathy) of the ubiquitous process, the social dynamic of the regime of the gaze. The performance initially has no claim to action: merely by existing it attempts to expose the existence of the regime.
In echo to Minujín's work the opening was chosen as the ideal moment of observation. The multiple layers of sehen und gesehen werden (see and be seen) unfold: gallery visitors see artworks, gallery visitors see gallery visitors, gallery visitors see the performance, the performer sees gallery visitors and artworks and everybody can see exactly how the performance sees all this, inviting the visitors to extrapolate this visibility to their own gaze and that of their surrounding.
A feedback system establishes itself. The gaze is felt, spatially, physically. And as a performer I am the first to notice the arising self-censorship. Moving your eyes loses it's unconscious innocence. The sensation stays, even after leaving the apparatus. You'll never look at anything the same way anymore.
Nominated for HGB Studienpreis 2017
At this very moment, one of the servers performing this work retrieves images from 24 randomly selected webcams. The webcams are located in the 24 time zones of the earth, one per time zone. The database contains between 60 and 100 active webcams.
The results are presented as a triptych (responsively, so on small devices they are stacked vertically). For each image, 3 to 7 layers are superimposed. The actual composition changes with every call of the page and can be forced with the "reload" button.
Thus, every moment that is fixed in its temporal dimension encompasses an immeasurably large number of combinations of its visual archiving. Several forms of time are negotiated: local (time zones, refresh and transfer rates), technical (webcam aesthetics) and historical (the moment in general — but especially internet — development, where it is [still] possible to access a large number of single-frame based webcams worldwide).
Interactive installation with VR, 2017
With Virtual Reality this can be overcome, since vision is detached from the own body. Does this also detach and dissolve self-perception as known until today? Is this a first step towards trans-humanism?
It isn't. We recognize ourselves with even low-resolution, square-y, hollow representations of ourselves. But we don't associate with the body, can't move naturally, are awkwardly lost in overlapping physical and virtual spaces. The movement of the own body, the movement of others entering the light cube (a physical take on the chaperone usually used in VR to remind users of the physical limits) and the movement of the virtual camera are quite overwhelming.
![Installation view at Neue Sortierung (Schacht Dölitz), Leipzig [credit: ? / THIS IS FAKE]](https://welcometomywebsite.neopostmodern.com/images/iGBH4oLM2txEiipyt.jpg "Installation view at Neue Sortierung (Schacht Dölitz), Leipzig [credit: ? / THIS IS FAKE]")
Short documentary video (1:37, no audio)
Kowalski, M.; Naruniec, J.; Daniluk, M.: "LiveScan3D: A Fast and Inexpensive 3D Data Acquisition System for Multiple Kinect v2 Sensors". in 3D Vision (3DV), 2015 International Conference on, Lyon, France, 2015
One key aspect missing in this documentation — so far — is the role of the person in virtual reality as a performer.
On the other hand, the one-regarding-themself is in the attention of everybody not in VR. He is looked at without being able to look back. The light cube creates a physical sub-space in the surrounding (physical) exhibition space. This sub-space is usually accepted as a stage, the invisible boundaries aren't trespassed by viewers.
The privacy of the own body experience, of losing oneself in immersion, of moving in a virtual environment - it is involuntarily presented as a performance.
Artist lecture
with The Wrong
IRL & online stream
with S4NTP & UdK Generative Art
group show curated by Peggy Buth, Ralf F. Hartmann, Friederike Kröbel, Jens-Ole Rey
lecture — day 4, hall Clarke, 13:30
Creative _ Places end of residency group show, part of Szeniale festival
selected festival entry for the annual theme "Futur III"
group show coordinated by Peggy Buth
lecture, self-organized session
show with Rüdiger Schöll
curated film program
group show curated by Clemens von Wedemeyer / Alba d'Urbano / Peggy Buth
group show + award exhibition, as a non-competing guest
award exhibition - won annual theme BIG DADA
group show, participating as part of THIS IS FAKE + participation in film screening
award exhibition - nominee
group show with THIS IS FAKE
group project, as part of media art class of 2016