The video Postludium is an obituary for the former gasworks area in Augsburg/ Oberhausen. It shows a ghostlike dance in the empty rooms of the building especially of a historical disc-type gasometer, built in 1915, and another recent disc-type gasometer (“Gaskessel”). This work raises the question of whether a building has a memory and thus also an identity.
The sound piece “Echoes of Industry” is a production by Gerald Fiebig and Christian Z. Müller. It was recorded in the “Gaskessel”.
“Because one thing is stronger than us, namely the eternal progression of time, which never stops and inevitably leads to death.”
Christian Boltanski
An artificial choreography is generated by stringing together and repeating 25 still images. A rhythm is formed by modules of natural and artificial sounds (water drops and the clatter of a machine). A whispering voice recites “The Burial of the Dead” from the poem “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot.
In the left part of the screen is a static image that at first glance resembles a sacred motif, perhaps an altar of some sort. In fact, it is a table with a bird’s nest in the light of a neon lamp. In it lie small bird skeletons.
Memento… Boltanski! ” is a vanitas dance on the futility of life.
The basis of this work are photographs in long exposure taken during a dance rehearsal. Since the order of the photos was rearranged by me, the resulting “dance” has nothing to do with the original choreography. On the acoustic level I proceeded in a similar way: from water dripping and machine noises I selected single elements and put them together to a rhythm. All sounds were produced and edited by myself, exclusively for this work.
“Flee Immediately! attempts to research a world in-between design, art, technology, culture, offline, online… and it constantly redefines itself along the way.”
Renée Carmichael
In 2016 I participated in an experimental online event initiated by Renée Carmichael – artist, programmer and dancer with a focus on dance & code. The release of the website, programmed by Renée, took place online. The visitor himself became part of the concept of Dance & Code, as he followed a given “choreography” with his fingers on the tablet. In this way, he became a dancer himself. The works on the website came from different artists and dealt with dance in the broadest sense, including my work: a preliminary version of the video “Patterns”, which at that time still consisted of three individual videos.
Renée’s idea fitted my concept exactly – or was it exactly the other way round? In any case, I don’t need to add anything to what she said:
“After all, rhythm is the repeated pattern itself – the code and the looping. And we all dance to that. We dance to a choreography that is pre-programmed into the interface. This choreography has power: it is the planned moves of control.(…) But really we are just making the same old moves that everyone else on the dance floor is pushing out of their (seemingly) free flowing limbs. We dance, and we are part of the choreography of control.”
