Posts Tagged ‘Artists’

Schauwerk Sindelfingen

Posted by 235media-IT

CLIENT: SCHAUWERK SINDELFINGEN

22. SEPTEMBER 2024 TO 27. APRIL 2025

From 22 September 2024, SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen will be showing works by four artists who were guests at the Schaufler Lab between 2020 and 2024 and explored the question of how artificial intelligence is changing cultural and social structures in this first funding phase. The exhibition can be visited until 27 April 2025.

Esmeralda Conde Ruiz is an award-winning interdisciplinary composer and audiovisual artist. For the site-specific multi-channel installation 24/7, Conde Ruiz combined sound recordings from the TU Dresden computer centre with the human voice. The sounds develop into a human-machine chorus that hums, booms and vibrates.
Christian Kosmas Mayer presents projects that are the result of extensive artistic research and intensive historical and contemporary research. In the exhibition space, Mayer combines items on loan from the TU Dresden’s historical acoustic-phonetic collection with objects he has specially created on a 3D printer, among other things. Scientific exhibits meet Mayer’s artistic artefacts here.
Rosa Barba’s work explores the relationship between film, space and the viewer. SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen is showing her video work Inside the Outset: Evoking a Space of Passage, which was created in Cyprus in 2021. In the abandoned UN buffer zone, a so-called ‘Green Line’ that has separated the north and south of the island since 1974, she created a circular open-air cinema.
235 Media supported the artists in their process and provided the media technology for the installations.

Museum la Boverie, Lüttich

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: MUSEUM LA BOVERIE

21 OCTOBER 2023 TO 28 APRIL 2024

La Boverie Museum in Liège is presenting “Sculptor of Time”, a major solo exhibition by the American artist Bill Viola.
In collaboration with Tempora and Bill Viola Studio, the museum is presenting the first Belgian exhibition of international standing to honor the work of the renowned video artist. Viola’s works are technically impressive, simultaneously grandiose and intimate, complex and surprisingly accessible, spectacular and deeply human. The sources of inspiration for his installations are diverse and rooted in Western and Eastern art traditions and various spiritual philosophies. They are imbued with a humanism with a universal character.
La Boverie presents 17 works by Bill Viola, including 5 large-scale installations. Among other things, visitors can expect to see the rarely shown works “Slowly Turning Narrative” and “Going Forth by Day” and an impressive version of the work “Fire Woman/ Tristan’s Ascension”, which is presented on an 8 m high canvas.

235 Media has produced a re-build of the 1992 work “Heaven & Earth” for this exhibition, commissioned by Bill Viola Studio,
and technically reworked the work “Slowly Turning Narrative” from 1992 (which we already rebuilt in 2017).
Furthermore, 235 Media was involved in the technical planning of the exhibition and carried out the complete technical realization.

Schauwerk Sindelfingen

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: SCHAUWERK SINDELFINGEN

24 SEPTEMBER 2023 TO 01 APRIL 2024

The SCHAUWERK in Sindelfingen is presenting the comprehensive exhibition “Return to the Real” by artist Doug Aitken from September 24, 2023 to April 1, 2024. His works, including video installations, sculptures and photographs, explore social themes such as alienation, isolation and the relationships between humans, nature and technology.

Highlights of the exhibition include the video installations “Migration” from 2008 and the new work “Wilderness” from 2022, which shows everyday life on the beach in Los Angeles during the coronavirus pandemic. Another installation, “migration (empire)” from 2008, presents abandoned cities and animals in motel rooms across the USA. In addition, the installations “3 Modern Figures (don’t forget to brathe)” from 2018 and “All doors open” from 2019, which address the fusion of the digital and the real as well as the fragmentation of space and time, will also be presented.

235 Media realized the technical planning as well as the construction and projection mapping. In addition, both the media technology and the media planning were taken over.

Marta Herford, Herford

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: Marta Herford Museum

17 JUNE 2023 TO 15 OCTOBER 2023

From June 17, 2023 to October 15, 2023, the exhibition “SHIFT – AI and a future community” could be visited at the Marta Herford Museum of Art, Architecture and Design.
Nine international artists take a stand on the complex social contexts of AI, reflect on this topic and make it tangible for visitors. The result is an exciting exchange between humans, nature and technology that asks and answers questions and opens up new perspectives.

235 Media is supporting the two artists Hito Steyerl and Philippe Parreno with the implementation. Hito Steyerl’s installation comprises an immersive projected live simulation articulated in the form of a narrative video that combines different sources and aesthetics. Philippe Parreno’s work shows 64 image sequences in high-end CGI, which are controlled and continuously developed by an AI.

Michael Pinsky, The Final Bid

Posted by Lina Heuschen

MICHAEL PINSKY, THE FINAL BID

26.05. – 07.06. 2023 BEI 235 MEDIA, AM KÖLNER BRETT 1, KÖLN

The installation “The Final Bid” by British artist Michael Pinsky questions our consumer behavior and its impact on the environment. It is surprising that the majority of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the consumption of things like furniture, clothing or appliances and not by air travel, energy consumption or food. The project promotes an economy of reuse by collecting used chairs that are then sold through an online auction. This creates an ever-changing sculptural ensemble. The installation height of each chair increases as the bidding increases, representing the evolving value of the object. However, the sculptural presence of the exhibition is only a moment in the chairs’ journey to reuse, as they will find a new home elsewhere after the exhibition.

“The Final Bid” plays with the idea of collecting artifacts and the appreciation they gain when placed in a new context. While some of the chairs may have significant sentimental value, they may generally have little commercial value. In the tradition of the readymade, they are momentarily ripped from their functional use and become sculptures to be contemplated rather than just pieces of furniture to be sat upon.

We are celebrating forty years of 235 Media as part of Passages 2023.

Bids could be placed on-site or online. Proceeds were donated to Doctors Without Borders.

 

With the kind support of the Draiflessen Collection, Mettingen.

Michael Pinsky, THE FINAL BID, 2022, first time realized at the Draiflessen Collection, Mettingen.

Bill Viola Studio, Milan

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: BILL VIOLA STUDIO

24 FEBRUARY TO 25 JUNE 2023

It is the first exhibition of works by Bill Viola in Milan: Palazzo Reale will host fifteen masterpieces by Bill Viola, representing a cross-section of his entire body of work spanning 30 years.

The exhibition is part of Milano Art Week (April 11-16, 2023). As always when Bill Viola exhibits in Europe, our team has been commissioned to install the artworks and set up the necessary technology.

Michael Pinsky

Posted by Lina Heuschen

Client: Draiflessen Collection, Mettingen

The topic of sustainability is also taking an increasingly prominent place in the visual arts. In his installation THE FINAL BID at the Draiflessen Collection, Mettingen, British artist Michael Pinsky addressed the issue of reusing things instead of buying new ones. 144 used chairs were auctioned off in an elaborate auction installation. The auction status of the individual chairs was indicated by how high they floated in the air. The bids created a kinetic ensemble of objects that changed constantly.

To breathe life into the installation, we converted each of the 144 electric motorized winches and made them network-compatible. We also developed the control software that allowed each winch to be controlled individually. On an online auction platform, interested parties placed their bids on the individual chairs, which were then converted into control commands for the motorized winches via our network.

Finally, our technical team carried out the elaborate installation and setup of the 144 winches in the MAIN SPACE of the Draiflessen Collection.

Images: Michael Pinsky, THE FINAL BID, © Draiflessen Collection, Mettingen/Michael Pinsky, Photos: Henning Rogge

Artmuseum Bonn

Posted by Lina Heuschen

Client: Artmuseum Bonn
30 November 2022

The work “Remagine” by artist Olafur Eliasson, created in 2002, consists of 12 spotlights that project immaterial spaces onto walls with their beam of light. The spotlights are controlled by a computer program and switch on and off accordingly, creating a complex interplay of the illusion of central-perspective spatial alignments and spatial doublings.
Light plays a key role in many of Eliasson’s works, and he also makes use of the four elements. With this methodology, the viewer’s perception is deceived and experimentally distorted.

The Kunstmuseum Bonn is taking up Eliasson’s work again in 2022 and presenting it in a restored form. 235 Media has taken over the renewal of the computer programming and lighting control.

Museum der Moderne (Rupertinum), Salzburg

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: MUSEUM DER MODERNE

16 JULY TO 30 OCTOBER 2022

The Museum der Moderne Salzburg presents a comprehensive exhibition of the fifty-year oeuvre of the renowned video artist Bill Viola. The exhibition includes a selection of his impressive works, which deal with existential themes such as life, death, transformation and rebirth. Viola combines visionary poetics with cutting-edge technology to create visually powerful works; conventional visual habits are broken. The exhibition focuses on the basic conditions and potentials of human existence, exploring themes such as the human body, orders of time, spirituality and transcendence. Special attention is given to Viola’s video-sound installation “The Raft,” which is a universal metaphor for the threat to human life. The exhibition invites visitors to discover the fascinating works of Bill Viola and to engage with the central questions of human existence.

The museum has commissioned 235 Media with the technical realization of all installations.

Centraal Museum, Utrecht

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: CENTRAAL MUSEUM

08 OCTOBER 2022 TO 15 JANUARY 2023

The exhibition “Double Act” showed video installations from the collection of the Kramlich family, next to the 17th century painting collection of the Centraal Museum. Contemporary greats such as Bill Viola, Marina Abramović, Bruce Nauman and Steve McQueen meet top works by well-known Utrecht painters Abraham Bloemaert, Roeland Saverij, Jan van Scorel, Dirck van Baburen and Gerard van Honthorst. The combination acts as a mirror for the soul.

The museum commissioned 235 Media to realize the room installation by Bill Viola.

Museum der Moderne Rupertinum, Salzburg

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: PALAZZO BONPARTE

05 MARCH TO 26 JUNE 2022

The exhibition “Icons of Light” at Palazzo Bonaparte in Rome is dedicated to Bill Viola. Curated by Viola’s wife Kira Perov, the exhibition features 10 works, including well-known works such as “Ascension” (2000) and the famous “Water Portraits” (2015). Viola’s works explore themes of life and death, incorporating contrasts between Eastern and Western cultures. The exhibition serves as a retrospective and offers a glimpse into Viola’s artistic journey over the past four decades, with video installations and projections depicting the evolution of video art. The exhibition creates an immersive and introspective atmosphere reminiscent of intimate spaces or sacred shrines, inviting visitors to make a deep visual and spiritual connection with the artworks.

The museum has commissioned 235 Media for the technical realization of all installations.

Marcel Odenbach

Posted by Lina Heuschen

Congratulations to Marcel Odenbach on receiving the Wolfgang Hahn Prize of the Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne!

Museums of Altena Castle

Posted by Lina Heuschen

Client: Museums of Altena Castle

September 2021

 

235 Media successfully completed the filming of seven historical personalities for the historical exhibition at Altena Castle in the planet nippes studio.

More information >>

LWL Archaeological Museum Herne

Posted by Lina Heuschen

Client: LWL Archaeological Museum Herne

September 2021

 

 

235 Media advised the exhibition organisers and supplied and installed the media technology. Various special constructions were used.

Learn more on the project site >>

Amos Rex Art Museum, Helsinki

Posted by Lina Heuschen

Amos Rex Art Museum, Helsinki

Bill Viola: Inner Journey
22 September 2021 – 27 February 2022

Bill Viola, Night Vigil (detail), 2005/2009. Photo: Kira Perov © Bill Viola Studio

 

235 Media has taken over the technical planning and realization and supplied the video and audio technology – as always when the Bill Viola Studio exhibits in Europe.

Learn more on the project site >>

Stavanger Art Museum, Stavanger

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: STAVANGER ART MUSEUM

23 JANUARY TO 15 AUGUST 2021

The exhibition “Into the Light” shows 10 works by the American artist Bill Viola from 1976 to 2013. Viola has been working with video for almost fifty years, exploring its technical and aesthetic possibilities. His video installations offer the viewer a holistic experience and often deal with philosophical, psychological and spiritual themes. The exhibition shows 12 video installations as well as a selection of older single-channel works. At the beginning of his career, Viola experimented with video effects and time manipulation. Later, he incorporated classical themes from art history and worked on a video installation for Wagner’s opera “Tristan and Isolde”. Viola’s art was inspired by mythology, Christian mysticism, Islamic Sufism and Buddhism.

The museum has commissioned 235 Media with the technical realization of all installations.

IMAI – Inter Media Art Institute

Posted by Lina Heuschen

IMAI – Inter Media Art Institute

Anniversary

 

The IMAI – Inter Media Art Institute in Düsseldorf turns 15 years old. The founders and managing directors of 235 Media, Axel Wirths and Ulrich Leistner, congratulate!

RTL

Posted by Lina Heuschen

Holocircle

RTL: Team Wallraff – Reporter Undercover
Broadcast date: September 9, 2021

 

235 Media co-conceived the RTL-HOLOCIRCLE appearance in cooperation with EYE SYSTEMS, created the content and provided the technical equipment and the video operator.

Museum Ludwig

Posted by Lina Heuschen

Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Boaz Kaizman. Green Area
September 3, 2021 – January 9, 2022

Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln/Marleen Scholten © Boaz Kaizman

 

 

235 Media designed, provided and installed all the technology for the elaborate video/audio installation – 16 videos on 7 projectors, surround sound and individual audio experience via headphones.

Learn more on the project page >>

Museum Ludwig

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: Museum Ludwig, Cologne

DECEM­BER 12TH 2020 – JU­NE 13TH 2021

 

 

235 Media installed several room-sized monitor and projection works.

Find out more on the Projectsite >>

Draiflessen Collection

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: Draiflessen Collection
Emil Nolde – a critical approach by Mischa Kuball
Oktober 11th 2020 – February 7th 2021

In the Draiflessen Collection in Mettingen, the conceptual artist Mischa Kuball (*1959) devotes himself to the work and perception of the expressionist painter Emil Nolde (1867-1956). In the context of the exhibition Emil Nolde – a critical approach by Mischa Kuball”, Kuball examines discourses on the historical person and deals, among other things, with mechanisms of artistic self-staging.

235 Media installed six space-filling projections with a size of up to 49 square meters.

Gudrun Barenbrock

Posted by Lina Heuschen

KUNDE: Gudrun Barenbrock
11. Mai bis 26. Mai 2019

On the occasion of the KunstFestSpiele 2019 in Hanover, strange plants and all sorts of animals filled the Arne Jacobsen foyer. This was all part of the “Greenhouse” sound and video installation by Cologne media artist Gudrun Barenbrock, who turned the glass cube into a walk-in ‘greenhouse for pictures’. This created a complex composition of fleeting, flowing and proliferating rhythms of light and sound.

Barenbrock’s work “Greenhouse” is based on her observations of nature during numerous trips to remote areas of Central Africa, North and South America, and Asia. They are momentary snapshots documenting order and diversity in the apparent chaos of nature.

235 MEDIA planned and implemented the projection and playback technology. In cooperation with the artist, 235 MEDIA conducted extensive tests in order to select the optimum projection media, and developed the framework for the gauze surfaces. The semi-transparent projection surfaces inside the greenhouse created numerous optical effects, through which projections on the floor and ceiling were duplicated and reflected onto objects outside the building, on which they were still recognizable.

The artist published an extensive video documentation on Vimeo.

Photos: Gudrun Barenbrock, Helge Krückeberg

Marina Abramovic

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
20th April til 12th August 2018

Marina Abramovic is one of the most renowned and controversial contemporary artists – especially with her ground-breaking performances, in which she repeatedly explores her own physical and psychological limits. “The Cleaner” is the first major retrospective of the performance artist, which can be seen exclusively in Germany from 20 April onward at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn.

The exhibition extensively reflects the facets of her work, whereby personal experience and responsibility are a main focus for her. Films, photography, paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations as well as selected archive material show the subject and media range of the artist. Some re-performances and participative work enrich the intensive exhibition experience.

235 MEDIA installed 35 projections, 25 monitor installations and the audio technology of the exhibition.

HAEGUE YANG

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: Museum Ludwig
18th April til 12th August 2018

The Association for Modern Art at the Ludwig Museum awarded Haegue Yang the Wolfgang-Hahn-Prize in the year 2018. The Ludwig Museum is presenting a first major overview of the artist and the diversity of her work with 120 exhibits.

The abbreviation ETA stands for “Estimated Time of Arrival” and refers to the artist’s career in transit and constantly changing locations, who now has studios in Seoul and Berlin and has been exhibiting internationally since 1994.

With her very varied work Haegue Yang has evaded being assigned to a particular category. Her works are, on the one hand, critical of institutions, conceptual with historical references, and, at the same time sensually complex and emotionally charged. The overview covers more the 1500 m² of space in which the spatial scenography picks up the conceptional dynamic of the works.

235 MEDIA has realised the media installations and the rather unconventional lighting concept and supplied the hardware.

REMOTEWORDS.32

Posted by Lina Heuschen

08th July 2016

REMOTEWORDS.32 consists of the now 32nd stage of the long-term art project ‘REMOTEWORDS’ by Achim Mohné and Uta Kopp. REMOTEWORDS writes short messages in large letters on rooftops in order to distribute information via navigation and satellite systems such as Google Earth, which are “hacked” and used for artistic purposes. Unique messages are constantly developed for various REMOTEWORDS locations, such as the University of Art in Berlin, the Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn and the H3K House of Electronic Arts in Basel.

The words on the rooftop of 235 MEDIA in Cologne were selected by the Cologne artist, Marcel Odenbach, and are borrowed from a poem by Ingeborg Bachmann written in 1952. For the artists, the wording represents a relativisation of the media images and calls for the constant questioning of supposed ‘photographic authenticity’.

On the occasion of the rooftop’s opening on 8th July 2016, a radio-controlled CCTV drone by the friendly film production company, TIMESCOPE films, was flying over the roof of 235 MEDIA showroom and production studio, transmitting the aerial images and revealing the message.

Heaven above, heaven below

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: Stadtverwaltung Düsseldorf
February 2016

On 22 February, the six new underground stations on the Wehrhahn line were opened in Düsseldorf. This extraordinary project was completed after a 15-year collaboration between architects, artists, engineers and the municipal authority.

The Benrather Straße station was designed by the installation artist Thomas Stricker under the project name “Heaven above, heaven below” (German: Himmel oben, Himmel unten). The entire intermediate level, which is around 70 x 15 m, replicates the inside of a spaceship. Six large video screens were built into the metal walls, showing planets of our solar system and stars in the Milky Way. Together, the six animations form a complete film which is displayed on the six screens in such a way as to give the impression of travelling through space; thus creating the illusion that the entire station is flying through space. The installation brings the heavens to the earth, swaps up for down and transforms heavy to light. The vastness of the universe is transferred to the confines of the underground. The architecture appears mobile, like a spaceship moving through the infinite expanse of space.

235 MEDIA designed the media technology and installed the feed technology, as well as devising the animations in cooperation with Thomas Stricker.

Full press reports from The New York Times and the Süddeutsche Zeitung can be found using the following links.

The New York Times

Süddeutsche Zeitung

PARTNERS:
Artistic conception and realization: Thomas Stricker
Architecture: netzwerkarchitekten, Darmstadt
Media planning, film production: 235 MEDIA, Köln
Client: City Administration Düsseldorf
Photos: Thomas Stricker

Research project

Posted by Lina Heuschen

August 2015

August 2015 saw the start of the research project “The media art agency 235 MEDIA” at the imai – inter media art institute in Düsseldorf, realised by the art and media studies expert Dr Jessica Nitsche assisted by Angelika Gwozdz. The project was sponsored by the Gerda Henkel Foundation.

The objective of the research project was the first systematic exploration and media-theoretical consolidation of the media art agency 235 MEDIA, which has significantly influenced the development and international distribution of video and media art since the early 1980s. The imai is the perfect location for this art history research. When the foundation was formed in 2006, 235 MEDIA provided an entire archive of video and media art, exhibition documentation and other audiovisual formats as well as numerous unpublished material spanning 25 years of media art history.

More information about the project and research team is available at: www.imaionline.de

Sponsored by: Gerda Henkel Foundation

Research project

Posted by Lina Heuschen

August 2015

August 2015 saw the start of the research project “The media art agency 235 MEDIA” at the imai – inter media art institute in Düsseldorf, realised by the art and media studies expert Dr Jessica Nitsche assisted by Angelika Gwozdz. The project was sponsored by the Gerda Henkel Foundation.

The objective of the research project was the first systematic exploration and media-theoretical consolidation of the media art agency 235 MEDIA, which has significantly influenced the development and international distribution of video and media art since the early 1980s. The imai is the perfect location for this art history research. When the foundation was formed in 2006, 235 MEDIA provided an entire archive of video and media art, exhibition documentation and other audiovisual formats as well as numerous unpublished material spanning 25 years of media art history.

More information about the project and research team is available at: www.imaionline.de

Sponsored by: Gerda Henkel Foundation

Vision Ruhr

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: CITY DORTMUND
2000

The exhibition project `vision.ruhr´ opens up, with new artistic works and using the Ruhr conurbation as an example , the reality of life in and the transformation of an old industrial region. The art exhibition combines various display elements into a scenario that engages itself artistically with the historical heritage, the present time and artistic visions of the future.

Outstanding media installations, sculptures and performances by world-renowned artists are the focus of the exhibition, which will be rounded off by an event programme from the fields of music, film and Internet as well as museum-educational activities.

The central venue for the exhibition is the Jugendstil-Zeche Zollern II/IV in Dortmund. With works from Gary Hill, Doug Hall, Perry Hoberman, Studio Azzurro, Laurie Anderson, Jochen Gerz and many more.

Doug Hall

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: Doug Hall
2000

Doug Halls environment allows for a complex spatial experience through the cooperation of several media. The whole of the exhibition area is integrated into the dramaturgy by creating a complex spatial structure with the help of various steel constructions and by using the walls as projection screens.

Within the darkened room, huge video projections and six video monitors create a dramatic scenery of tempests, fires and floods. These impressive but non-directive—and virtual—energy potentials of Nature presented to the audience both as video images and as sounds, are contrasted with a physical installation exhibit: In certain intervals, a Tesla coil produces enormous “live” electrical discharges in the hall.

The name of Doug Halls installation THE TERRIBLE UNCERTAINTY OF THE THING DESCRIBED refers to Edmund Burkes “A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful”. Hall draws on Burke’s description of the relationship between Man’s awe in the face of the powers of nature and the sciences quest for enlightenment, staging this field of tension with the help of video technology and various steel constructions. Both fascinating and frightening, the installation does not only deliver a representation, but also an analysis of the transformation of energy. The taming of the sometimes destructive natural powers, represented by the artificial electrical arcs created with the Tesla coi, l seems to be successful; yet it becomes obvious—also under consideration of the latest news of natural disasters all over the world—that Man with all the technology at his hands still is not able to canalise more than a fraction of these enormous powers.

Andres Bosshard

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: vision.ruhr, Dortmund
2000

An interactive sound architecture to the plans of old sun dials: Echo-cascade for the production of sounds of subterranean vibrations and their optimum atomisation in higher layers of air.

Although sun dials of all sizes have existed for ages, the attempt to build a moon clock has not been made for quite a long time. A moon clock is an invisible machine. Its effects are only audible. The lunar powers of tide do not only influence the sea but also the different layers of rocks. Deep sound vibrations come up daily in different rising and falling cycles. A sound-based moon-clock makes those huge subterranean sound waves audible and brings them to the surface.

Four sound stones are set up immediately above ground with a distance of 25 metres from each other. They form the sound foundation for an echo-cascade rising up to 20m. This leads the sound movement of the deep sound vibrations along an alley and far beyond its tree tops. Six see-through sound transformers are hung up in the branches so as to enable every gust of wind to optimally blow away the sounds.

The layers of air themselves are naturally filled with huge deep sound fields that, however, are inaudible to us. A moon-clock thus is a space where different adjacent layers of space can be brought into a relationship as if we could read the night time by listening to the moon shades. Admittedly, without the magic of poesy, the light of day does not allow any moonlight to be seen. However, the sound areas cycling in the alley that can be diverted by the visitors with the help of four motion sensors, do provide such an impression.

Grahame Weinbren, Tunnel

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: Stadt Dortmund
2000

Over some stairs, the visitor enters a 30 m long artificial tunnel mounted on top of a set of uprights and running freely through the machine hall of the mine Zollern ll/lV. The tunnel, an abstracted coal seam, is built in zigzagged shape; its inside height varies between 2.5 and 4 metres.

In turn, the floor and the ceiling of the tunnel are used as projection surfaces. As soon as one enters the dark corridor, head and shoulders of a human appear on one side, feet and legs on the other, moving through the tunnel as a “virtual companion” in sync with the visitor’s walking speed. Since the images are projected onto transparent surfaces, visitors always get a glimpse at parts of the old machinery.

With the movement through the tunnel, the appearance of the alter ego changes: While being clothed in the style of the turn of the century at the beginning, its clothes take on a more and more modern form the closer the visitor gets to the end of the corridor.

Against the background of the unchanged old industrial plant, the change of the industrial society is portrayed through the outer transformation of the “virtual companion”. The walk through the tunnel becomes a journey through time.

Jeffrey Shaw

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
2000

The interactive installation PLACE RUHR exhibited from June 7 through July 20, 1997 at the Arts and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn extends classical panoramas in painting, photography and cinematography into three-dimensional virtual spaces.

A circular room with a diameter of 8,9 metres is installed in the exhibition area, its walls being used as projection surface. Inside this 260-degree screen, users can operate three video projectors covering a panorama section of 120 degrees each..

The projection system is installed on a motorized platform; through a simple interface, users control the direction and depth of camera movements, allowing them to zoom in or out of the panoramic landscape.
The projected scenery consists of eleven panoramic views captured with a special panorama camera and combined in a computer-controlled system. The various panoramas—in the case of PLACE RUHR, industrial landmarks of the Ruhr region were used—are represented as round objects within a virtual data space and can be accessed and left singly through the control unit.

On the inside of the cylinders, video sequences are presented that correspond to the topic and place of the outside of the objects in question. These video sequences are produced at characteristical places. For the PLACE RUHR installation in Dortmund, actions with different elements were produced, including fire, water and smoke as well as sequences with actors, children, sportsmen, etc. Each cylinder is assigned a symbolic live element closely connected to the specific landmark and the position of the cylinder.

An additional microphone on the control unit allows visitors to trigger a computer program that projects three-dimensional fragments of text into the panorama.

Jill Scott

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: Zeche Zollern II/IV
2000

Jill Scott’s large spatial installation consists of two interactive sections. The artist uses the representative architecture of the Zollern ll/lV mine’s “Steigerhalle” hall as a projection surface for seven video projections.

In the first section, visitors are assigned the role of observers, out of which they are given the opportunity to enter in a sort of dialogue with six different persons—three men and three women—representing the industrial workers of the Ruhr area from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. The six characters are fictional personalities modelled by Jill Scott to the results of intense archive studies, oral tradition and interviews.

The individuals work in different industrial branches; yet, they have in common a reflected view on their work and living situation. With the help of six electronic interfaces—custom-made computer-controlled chairs—, visitors can explore the history of each of the six persons. The control system allows the selection and order of subjects that the characters talk about. By following the whole of the six life stories, visitors become witnesses of the changing work situations; however, this is not achieved by merely imparting facts and figures, but by intimate insights in the worker’s lives. The video images are projected onto the insides of the big blinded arched windows of the “Steigerhalle” hall, merging the workers’ life stories of the workers into the architecture of the mine.

The second section of BEYOND HIERARCHY consists of a video projection on the window opposite the entrance of the “Steigerhalle” hall and an interface that needs to be operated by two simultaneously to start the projection. The two visitors are required to shake hands —a metaphor for solidarity—through both openings of the box-shaped interface. This triggers the projection of documentary (“objective”) film material showing acts of protest and solidarity of the labour movement interspersed with images of equally fictitious labourers who comment the footage from their personal point-of-view.

Jill Scott uses the electronic media as an instrument to digest history, offering the audience the subjective reports of fictitious “witnesses” to create a point-of-view allowing for an identification with the past on a very personal level. a view on history.

Jim Campbell

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: Zeche Zollern II/IV
2000

The installation BALANCING ACT consists of a dark rectangular room with a large square rear projection video screen at one end and a small LCD video screen at the other end. On the floor, next to and facing the large screen, there is a walker filled with lead. In front of the walker, on the large screen, is a changing solid color field of light. Towards the bottom of the color field, there is a shadow of the walker.

As the viewer heads towards the walker and stands near it or within it, he perceives that the shadow of the walker in the image is not live. In other words, even if the viewer is looking at the image from within the walker, ha still sees the shadow of an empty walker. It seems like a mirror in which the viewer does not exist. The color field of light is constantly changing, slowly transitioning from one color to the next, lighting the whole space and the viewer with a single color at any one moment.

On the small video monitor at the other end of the room, there is a still image from the Wizard of Oz, produced in 1939. The image is taken from the scene shortly after Dorothy meets the Scarecrow which has a hard time standing because his knees are made of straw. When the viewer gets close to the small image he sees a single black pixel slowly moving from the left to the right and then down along a line, slowly scanning the image. It soon becomes apparent that the moving black pixel represents the location of the color that is currently being displayed on the rear projection screen behind the viewer.

As the pixel moves across the yellow brick road, the room fills with yellow light immersing the viewer in the same color as the moving black pixel on the image is being immersed in, giving the viewer the sensation of being within the image as a pixel and stuck in a 2 D world without being able to see beyond.

Jochen Gerz

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: ZECHE ZOLLERN
2000

For the duration of the exhibition “vision.ruhr” on the premises of the former mine Zollern ll/lV in Dortmund, Jochen Gerz realöised the set-up of a digital photo studio and a frame workshop.

The photo studio offered every visitor the possibility to get a photograph taken for free by a professional photographer according to the artist’s instructions, which was framed afterwards in the workshop. At the same time a second identical photo was printed and framed and transported to the local museum “Museum am Ostwall” and exhibited. An estimated amount of 5600 portraits of 50 by 60 cm had been produced twice. The back of each photograph contained exact specifications, such as the date and serial number of the portrait, as well as a certificate about the context of production. However, visitors did not received their own portrait as a gift, but rather a randomly chosen portrait of another person. The image of a stranger in the recipient’s private space thus became a symbol of the social interaction of unselfish giving.To see their own portrait the visitor had to go to the museum.

Masaki Fujihata, Vertical Mapping

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: Stadt Dortmund
2000

Masaki Fujihata’s interactive and networked installation VERTICAL MAPPING is oriented along the communication between miners above and below ground.

The installation consists of five hoisting cages that serve as the basis for the exploration of a three-dimensional computer-animated underground landscape where you can meet other visitors and communicate with them. Two of these cages are the original hosting cages of the Zollern ll/IV coal mine, two stylized copies can be found in the maintenance building of the mine, and another one on the balcony of the pithead baths. The different places where the hoisting cages are positioned are linked by “Shared Virtual Environment” technologies. VERTICAL MAPPING is a virtual pit system that contains quite a few surprises and invites the users to communicate.

The interface of the control system is the hoisting stand, or rather, its copy. The right lever is used for the movement along the X-axis (left and right), the left lever along the Y-axis (up and down). Next to the chair there is a telephone over which one can communicate with the actors of the other hoisting stands.

VERTICAL MAPPING uses an extended version of the software for “Global Interior Project”, 1996, and “Nuzzle Afar”, 1998, developed by Takeshi Kawashima.

Perry Hobermann, Workaholic

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: Stadt Dortmund
2000

A bunch of cables is hanging from the ceiling like a giant pendulum. On the lower end of the cable, just a few centimetres above ground, an omnidirectional bar code scanner casting its intense red laser light onto the floor is supended. A laminated print of about six square metres containing hundreds of bar codes and other high-contrast black-and-white images covers the floor beneath the scanner. A few metres above ground, a small video projector is mounted to the cabling, casting its images downward.

By swinging to and fro, the scanner reads the various bar codes at random. The projector projects an image to the floor that swings in tune with the scanner at its centre. The bar code data are forwarded to a computer controlling the video projector and constantly changing the images and animations. The images are determined by the bar codes, their appearance depending on the direction of the scanner/pendulum’s swing.

An octagon railing of the size of the pendulum?s maximum swing surrounds the cable bundle. On it, eight powerful hairdryers are mounted to act as a sort of interface. The visitors may direct the jet of the hairdryers towards the pendulum in order to change its course. Several visitors can combine their efforts to force the pendulum into a certain swinging plane or into a circular motion that will produce spectacular images.

The work and its hard-to-use interface evoke associations of a consumerism out of control, with a flood of goods and transactions melting into each other and becoming undistinguishable.

Sommerer & Mignonneau, Industrial Evolution

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: Stadt Dortmund
2000

In the installation INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION visitors can interact with historical photographs from the time of the Industrial Revolution. Pictures of factories, mines, assembly line, production sites and connected administration buildings convey a fascination for the technical achievements of the time, not unlike the one that can be felt towards the present digital revolution.

In part, the images selected present the mine Zollern ll/lV in Dortmund, others show factories and production sites from all over the world. Many of the images accessible in the installation are stereo photographs from the middle of the 19th century. They were looked at through a so-called stereoscope that allowed a three-dimensional view.

Based upon the idea of combining those historical pictures of the Industrial Revolution with the digital technology of our time and opening them to be experienced by the visitors, Sommerer and Mignonneau created this interactive and immersive virtual environment integrating the audience.

INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION allows the visitor to enter the historical images and to interact with them. When entering the installation, visitors see themselves on the projection screen being set into one of those pictures. By moving within the real space of the environment they may simultaneously experience the virtual three-dimensional space of the historic photograph.

Peter Kogler

Posted by Lina Heuschen

CLIENT: Stadt Dortmund
2000

Within the setting of the media art exhibition vision.ruhr, Peter Kogler designed two huge printed courtains covering the lateral windows for the right half of the great machinery hall of the Zollern II/IV mine. Kogler’s works, developing their
best effect when in large formats, are based on recurring patterns of graphic items.

This work referring to the tools of coal mining was custom designed for the machinery hall by Kogler. In addition to the artistic message it conveyed, the curtain was actually intended to darken the right-hand side of the hall.