Heavy Matter (ISEA Ruhr 2010)

Untitled (Capsule)

by KARIN LINGNAU
Sculpture, 2010
(cardboard, wood, tape) approx. 220 x 350 x 160 cm

Untitled (Capsule) is a sculpture made from simple materials and based on human proportions. It is a sketch of a single cell chosen as a place to retreat.

Abstraction and Intimacy
by Georg Trogemann

«The white fiberglass coffins were racked in a framework of industrial scaffolding. Six tiers of coffins, ten coffins on a side. […] The compound was roofed with cheap laminated matting that rattled in the strong wind and leaked when it rained, but the coffins were reasonably difficult to open without a key. The expansion-grate catwalk vibrated with his weight as he edged his way along the third tier to Number 92. The coffins were three meters long, the oval hatches a meter wide and just under a meter and a half tall. He fed his key into the slot and waited for verification from the house computer.» William Gibson, Neuromancer, 1984

The coffins in William Gibson’s novel are in fact sleeping capsules that are connected to cyberspace. They are paradox spaces that seem to blur the differences between inside and outside. The act of retreating from the world into the intimacy of the capsule is immediately negated by the connection of each capsule to a network. One is left at the mercy of another world – the virtual world inside.

To mark the advent of architecture, Umberto Eco describes in “A Theory of Semiotics” an incident involving a prehistoric person. In the hypothetical narrative, this Stone Age person takes shelter from a storm in a cave. Protected from the cold and rain, they explore the contours of the cave. Soon, they can distinguish the cave’s depth and form in the shadows, recognising the entrance as the boundary between the dark, protective interior (which may arouse a vague longing for the womb) and the light, inhospitable world outside. This understanding of “inside” and “outside” enables the prehistoric person to establish characteristics that later help identify other suitable caves for shelter. Over time, other numerous places with similar characteristics are replaced with the abstract “idea of the cave”. “It is a model – a structure – that does not exist, but forms the basis for identifying particular instances of phenomenon as “cave””. In the idea of the cave and the boundary it draws between inside and outside, we find both the primeval experience of retreating (the intimacy and sheltered security that are basic functions in architecture), and the roots of abstraction and virtualisation.

Over thousands of years, we have further developed the ability to abstract i.e. to step back and consider our world objectively, breaking it down into basic components and general principles. Only with the construction of artefacts, tools and machines can this abstract knowledge be productively applied.
The house, an artificial shelter, offers only those functions of a cave that are considered desirable. Thus, we become independent of conditions that are inadequate or random. Due to the digital media, this transformation of abstraction into reality occurs a second time. Our abstract works are now created in the computer and are therefore completely free of the restrictions in the physical world. In a controlled situation, the process of abstraction occurs in reverse: By means of computational processes, phenomena that can be perceived by the senses are generated from abstract descriptions. The objective distance between ourselves and the world is thus reduced.

However, in order to perfect and embellish the virtual world, reality must be continually and comprehensively abstracted and objectified. Nothing is, or should be, permanently free of the influence of algorithms. And this is what creates the tension in Karin Lingnau’s sculpture. The individual objects, made up of flat polygon surfaces (the symbol of computed worlds per se), as well as the simplicity of the entire construction and the materials contrast sharply with what we expect to find inside the capsules. Everything that we have lost through our sober, analytic view of nature is to be returned to us – tamed, perfected and cultivated – by our virtual artefacts

Fri 20–Sun 29 August 2010
Westfalen Forum, Dortmund
Opening: Thur 19 August 2010, 18:00h

An exhibition by the Academy of Media Arts Cologne in cooperation with ISEA2010 RUHR.

At the turn of the 21st century, New Media has become a matter of course and the technology of electronic data processing is constantly being perfected. The promise that all spheres of life will be digitalised and made immaterial seems to have been fulfilled. Just how immaterial is data really? Does it not carry a certain amount of weight, after all? What role does the subject play in the virtual data space?

In this exhibition, the Academy of Media Arts questions the arrival of the virtual future and, as the exhibition title suggests, exposes the immaterial as Heavy Matter.

The question of whether the New Media can access reality is explored in the form of complex processes of transformation, embodiment, sound and localisation. By purloining scientific explanatory models for artistic purposes, applying extrasensory methods and devising poetic processes, the complex virtual world becomes accessible and is, literally, made tangible. 
Heavy does matter: objectively, physically and financially. Matter is an autonomous (disruptive) factor between transmitter and receiver.

Heavy Matter has been developed by members of the teaching staff and students of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM).

Initiated, supervised and coordinated by Prof. Mathias Antlfinger, Dr. Gabriele Gramelsberger, Echo Ho, Prof. Ute Hörner, Dr. des. Anneka Metzger, Lasse Scherffig, Prof. Dr. Georg Trogemann.

Freitag 20–Sonntag 29 August 2010
Westfalen Forum, Dortmund
Eröffnung: Donnerstag 19. August 2010, 18:00h

Zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts sind die neuen Medien selbstverständlich geworden und die Technologien zur Datenübertragung werden laufend perfektioniert. Die Verheißung von der Digitalisierung und Immaterialisierung der gesamten Lebenswelt scheint erfüllt. Doch wie immateriell sind Daten wirklich? Fallen sie nicht doch ins Gewicht? Und wo bleibt das Subjekt im Datenraum? In der Ausstellung „Heavy Matter“ wird die Ankunft in der virtuellen Zukunft bezweifelt und das Immaterielle als schwere Materie entlarvt. Die Frage nach dem Zugriff der Medien auf die Wirklichkeit taucht in Form von komplexen Transformationsprozessen, Verkörperungen, Verlautbarungen und Verortungen auf. Wissenschaftliche Erklärungsmodelle werden künstlerisch entwendet, übersinnliche Methoden angewendet und poetische Verfahren entdeckt um die komplexe virtuelle Welt erfahrbar, das heißt, buchstäblich greifbar zu machen.
 Heavy does matter: gegenständlich, leibhaftig, finanziell – die Materie agiert als eigenständiger (Stör-) Faktor auf dem Weg zwischen Sender und Empfänger.

Konzeption und Durchführung: Prof. Mathias Antlfinger, Dr. Gabriele Gramelsberger, Echo Ho, Prof. Ute Hörner, Dr. des. Anneka Metzger, Lasse Scherffig, Prof. Dr. Georg Trogemann.