Christian Faubel & Wolfgang Spahn
Read more about the artistsThe invited positions for the exhibition range from sculptures, drawings and video, to installations with electronics or living bio-matter. The main selection criteria was that the works emphasize a non-anthropocentric shift and critically or playfully investigate understandings of being human, being machine, being hybrid in a present where the impact of technology – be it on the environment or on our own bodies – is ubiquitous. The exhibition invites curious creatures of all kinds to experience of unusual perspectives, hybrid imaginations and AI narratives.
“Symbolic Grounding” is a kinetic light and sound installation that is run by dozens of artificial analogue neurons. They form a network that allows for interaction between the modules and for the emergence of coordination patterns due to its open structure. The artists Faubel and Spahn were interested in a non-algorithmic approach to computation that has its roots in cybernetics.
For “Computers watching moves” artist Ben Grosser’s developed an AI-algorithm that ‘watches’ movies such as Matrix or Inception and has a degree of agency, which allows it to decide which sections of the image it is looking at and which not. How does computer vision differ from our human vision and what does the difference say about culturally-developed ways of looking?
“The Lives beneath” tells the story of a world in 4000 years where nature has formed a worldwide super-network of consciousness and made humans obsolete in a mixture of fictitious film, stop-motion animation and documentary. This film is the last part in a trilogy by Bianca Kennedy & Felix Kraus, which is shown in full as a screening with Q&A on Friday evening.
reiner maria matysik makes sculptures that are models of post-evolutionary organisms in which he proposes future life-forms. Over the years he has created a large body of work, so called “wesen”, that are part of his made up taxonomy with lexicon-like biological description. His motivation for modelling biological bodies stems from the conviction that the rapid advances in the modern life sciences will have dramatic consequences for the process of biological evolution which is for him an evolution controlled by humans.
In “Wombs” artist Margherita Pevere confronts herself with her own female body and exemplifies the mixed emotions surrounding pregnancy. The ability to reproduce and the active prevention of it are reflected as a biopolitical and societal issue through an installation with living bacterial colonies and biofilms mixed with the artists hormones extracted from her urine. This work most recently was awarded with an honorary mention at Share Festival in Turin.
Alexandra R. Toland develops research narratives in artistic ecology to create awareness about the every-day importance of ecosystem services in cities. In “Dust Blooms” she researched the ability of flowers to help filter atmospheric particulate matter (dust), from natural and anthropogenic sources such as pollen or vehicular emissions. The installation comprises a sculpture with living and artificial flowers, photographs from the field research, and a series of etchings where the paint was made from dust collected in Berlin’s streets and parks.
For the opening ℌEXOℜℭℑSMOS will premiere his specifically developed live audiovisual performance “A Ritual for Floral, Cybernetic and Neuronal Intelligences”. The artist is using own neuronal EEG readings in combination with biosensory readings of plants to give the audience a direct interspecies experience.