blurses
(4/5 artworks)
installation
shown at
Transmedia Arts Dept., 1010 Vienna
08 11 23
metal, 2023
if you operate machinery wrong enough, everything becomes a smoke machine. if you think about it, a nespresso machine is basically a 3d printer. using a welding machine as extruding part in the work, its aim is less about connecting materials together, but adding layer after layer on top. as a handheld 3d printer, a material extrusion tube or just a very hot cake decoration piping tube, the lines are far from perfectly angled, balanced or regulated, nor should they be. through intuition - “here goes more” - “this looks fine” - the layers are built up to create depth on a first planar metal surface. the angle grinder, which in our everyday lingo has the better sounding name flex, shapes the rods to blades creates texture and depth, bent into place they are displayed in a certain movement, but captured. what would be easily modulated and or animated in a virtual environment is here hardly achieved through a still. but the material is true to itself and does not flow anti-gravitationally in the air itself, but rather sticks to its rigid, bent, hammered and in a way 3d printed form.
4 blurses of walking home
jacquard knitted textile, safety pins, hooks, concrete, 2023
the light emanating from my phone screen guides me home. i can use it as flashlight yes, but if i just turn on the brightness of the screen enough to illuminate my face i can be absorbed by it. i am taken to another dimension, while my body just sets foot after another in direction home. i’ve watched 300 videos by the time i get home, 7 minutes. i’ve watched at least 3 snippets of people going home themselves, about 100 of them i couldn’t care less, and another hundred i didn’t even wanna see. the rest of them, well, random access memory, in and out. forgot about them. it’s less about what i watch but the act of watching and the appearance that i don’t want to perceive what i have seen a hundred times on the way home, also i don’t want to be perceived while walking back, interaction is on the list of worst possible scenarios right now. i have my earphones in, gaze fixed on the screen and the screen fixed in front of my face, they are defence.
facebricks
concrete, 2023
let’s just pretend i didn’t watch neon genesis evangelion again over the summer and got stuck in-between internet culture, memes and kawaii representations of persons in online spaces. my thoughts: is anime cultural appropriation or is it universal internet culture at this point run around again. some years ago, in the context of fashion (i think, but very likely it was) i was explained lenses of 3 s concerning cultural appropriation. the first one was significance/sacredness, what meaning does it have individually or culturally to the people the thing originates from. second s was source of said object: were you invited to wear/use/show? did you “steal” the idea? is the community still suffering from oppression? the third s is for similarity: is it an exact copy, borrowed some patterns? put your own twist to it? complete remix? it’s by far not complete, but in the fashion context of brands appropriating ritualistic garments for fast fashion, it kinda gives an alright first idea. i’m not gonna dissect my face thingy through these lenses now, you can go ahead if you’d like, be my guest. rather i’d go towards the production, concrete, a very still and dead material, shaped intricately into faces by a mould. a mould that was 3d printed, before inverted, 3d sculpted, modified, 3d scanned and modeled, deciding on facial features in an avatar creation suite. thinking what hair do they have, what’s their expression, do they have fangs hidden beneath that grin. the software asks me when i export my avatars if i want to license them under cc (creative commons) and below if i allow them to be used in explicit context. i deny.
bags of sprite
bags of sprite, bowl, straws, 2023
surprise is a virtue, especially if it comes with recognition. in our contemporary condition, we are so used to the whackiest shit our government or other nations governmental representation decides, companies behaving as juridical, legislative and executive functions in a reality they have a major hold of shares in. a constant fight of agency, from
a hotline to elections and then again no democracy when it comes to how this planet is going down, money decides. extinction. i feel detached, dissociative towards the contemporary condition. if i think about it i could cry or laugh as a lack of alternative or cynicism. but most of the time i’m just numb towards it. not indifferent, not ignorant, but my emotions are not able to produce an adequate response. so i’m looking towards other things: the absurd, the cringe, embraced ugliness and failure, something where lolz is a somewhat adequate response and it makes me forget about the other things for a second. interestingly the lolz are deeply intertwined with extinction and our contemporary condition. i don’t think it’s pure cynicism and nihilism at this point. i think extinction is becoming more like an aesthetic. either way, one bag of sprite per kid.
new data plan
text on a4, 2023
i’m waiting for this moment like new years eve at midnight. when do i have mobile data again. i don’t have a home wifi, that’s why i’m somewhat dependent. if i run out of data being at home feels rural. out of it. out of connection. i need to get to eduroam the next morning to see what’s up. my devices work, but they are not connected. it’s just me and none of the service providers that make this existence consumeable. when my battery dies i feel like i’m missing a sense or organ, a part missing from myself, i’m not connected to the world wide web anymore. i feel like damn okay, now you have to take care of this situation old school, how do i get where i need to be next. checking my pockets, i have my key, my cards, cigarettes and a lighter somewhere entirely else, charged airpods, to pretend to listen to music on the way, so i don’t appear in the metro as the person without a phone, i check directions that i normally only use as confirmation of my already existing knowledge of where to go and follow them through this time, questioning who is confirming my itinerary now and hopefully a potential charger will be found somewhere.
when i run out of data i am also not connected to the www, but my phone is still smart, or i at least have to be to make some use out of it without an active connection. what do i have stored on my phone, what was still downloaded and can be accessed. i think the new liminal spaces are between on- and offline, when we are thrown back to our devices without an active connection. the airport is just a gateway to the liminal space that is time spent on the plane. There your phone suddenly doesn’t contain all the music you listen to, or the photos you want to see. you are thrown back to discover what’s left, what’s cached, what’s archived in an accessible way, you are rediscovering depths and surfaces of your phone, as a huge building block has been ripped out and lain bare. Which folders do you check, which music that you downloaded 5 years ago are you choosing to listen to, what memos are you reading of your own. you are thrown back to your past self, you can reflect your own history with your phone. You reconnect and notifications jab in like a needle in the flesh with fresh group chat messages.