“A long journey through the shapeless and bubbling matter, touching the void in the area of zero.” Tadeusz Kantor
Touching the Void in the Area of Zero
Category: Spatial Installation
Perpetuum Mobile
In this room installation, I bring together artefacts from the past that I have found in the cellar and in my memory: An art print that once hung above my parents’ marital bed, framed by a floral tabete; a stuffed animal head, a stylised sculpture of a deer, a television. A long corridor with no entrance or exit. They all find their place in a space that is both real and fictitious, but which we wander through again and again in time. Like prisoners of a time loop.
If you could define ‘oblivion’ or ‘eternity’ as a mathematical formulae – what would they be? Can an AI find a logical answer to this?
Probability of ‘forgetting’ (AI-generated)
Explanation of the variables:
P(F): Probability of forgetting. This lies between 0 and 1
M: Memory strength. It describes how well the information is anchored in the memory. A high value for M reduces the probability of forgetting.
R: Relevance. The more relevant information is, the more it is remembered and the less likely it is to be forgotten.
P: Perception. Describes the intensity with which the information is absorbed. A high intensity of perception reduces forgetting.
SM: Mental State. This value influences the ability to perceive and retain information. A high value means a stable mental state and reduces forgetting.
t: Time – Time. The probability of forgetting increases with increasing time.
Interpretation:
This formula is based on an exponential decay model, similar to the model of radioactive decay or other forms of memory loss over time. When memory strength, relevance, perception and psychological state are all high, the value in the exponent is very large, and P of F approaches 0, which means that the probability of forgetting is low. However, as time t increases, the exponent becomes smaller, bringing P(F) closer to 1 – forgetting becomes more likely.
Deep Paradise
The apple was and is highly symbolic in many cultures: be it as a symbol of eternal youth, eternal life, love, fertility, paradise and the fall of mankind.
In this installation, a golden apple floats in the air like a fixed star. Familiar places are reflected on its shiny surface (in the Bärenkeller district of Augsburg). How are people doing there and in the world?
In contrast, the two-dimensional portraits in this landscape appear strange. Who are these people? The Holy Family? Our neighbours? They never existed, but are the outputs of an artificial intelligence. We live in a time of upheaval. New technologies give us the feeling that we are increasingly losing control over truth and lies, over good and evil. Is this paradise on earth?
The apple hides a secret inside, because there is a small star made up of 5 seeds. It reminds us that our actions determine whether we come a little closer to “paradise on earth”.
The site-specific video installation refers to the real space: church, district, city… by showing it as a digital mirror image, which in turn is reflected by the shiny surface of the golden apple. A kind of visual recursion in which reality and fiction, analog and digital merge.
Deep Paula
In this work, we are confronted with an old photo that has been “brought to life” with the help of artificial intelligence. Does the girl seem authentic? Do we feel closer to her? What becomes of faulty memory when it gives way to artificial liveliness? Isn’t this illusion more likely to help us forget the last remnants of our memory of the real person? And would “Paula” have liked what we do with her memory?
Thanks to artificial intelligence, it is already possible today to create a perfect, seemingly “living” digital self, as promised by companies such as Storyfile and Eternos.life. We leave countless traces on the internet in the form of search queries, purchases, contributions from our lives – photos, videos, comments – and much more. Will this turn us into transparent marionettes that ghost around the web forever? Who is pulling the strings in the background? Will we still be able to tell the difference between living and dead, human and artificial? And further: if the loss of a person is compensated for by a digital twin – what meaning will farewell, grief and pain still have?
Can you imagine that the memory of you exists forever on the net as a living digital twin? Would you like to resurrect a deceased loved one as a digital copy? You can vote yes or no and take part in my analogue survey with real-time visualisation (Lego(R) bricks) or vote digitally here:
“Paula’s” real portrait photo can be found in the work Below the Surface (Book Object).
Music: AI-generated
Supermother
“Secretly, we are all just looking for a higher authority.
Someone to tell us what the hell to do.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Update für die Übermutter vom 29.8.2021
Drum Bun Spacial Installation
Drum Bun, 7-part work, collage, SanDepot-Halle, Aichach 2014
The room installation shows 7 processed sheets of paper hanging from the ceiling by a thread. Every breeze created by a passing visitor causes the sheets of paper to rotate, so that they cannot always be seen in their entirety. The result is an overall picture that is fragmentary and constantly changing – just like a memory.
Atlantis!
Installation, 8 parts, 2013, photography, glass, oil, wax on metal console, 93 x 15 x 12 cm
Man is a being driven by longing. The search for Atlantis – the mythical island empire sung about by Plato that sank into the sea – is the look back, the search for the memory of all the vanished utopias, symbolised by eight “preserves”.
