by doubleNegatives Architecture
http://corpora.hu
Archive for the ‘interview’ Category
Page 6 of 7
“The Earth is the cradle of humanity, however, it is impossible to spend one’s entire life in a cradle.” This quote from Constantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, a Russian rocket engineer, is the starting point for Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand’s speculative performance on the suspension of gravity. The reduction of gravitational effects may evoke emancipatory associations, yet such conditions predominate in our universe. In a spacecraft, among the most efficient ways to transport nearly all gases, liquids, and powders, is by means of a phenomenon known as acoustic levitation. In Domnitch and Gelfand’s ‘Sonolevitation‘, slivers of gold are acoustically suspended by a standing wave. A microphone monitors the slivers’ modulation of the levitatory wave: the slightest change in the sliver’s position has highly audible consequences. Sonolevitation is the first in a series of projects by the artists which explore microgravitational, near-vacuous environments. The capacity to create artworks in such spaces, permits the actuation of altogether unforeseen optical and acoustic processes. Especially for this performance, the artists have joined forces with TeZ, who creates a live quadraphonic setting of Sonolevitation. (transmediale.de)
isuma.tv is an independent platform for indigenous film-makers, exchanging traditional knowledge, as well as news and footage documenting an aboriginal way of life. Paul Quassa, sitting in the futuristic McLuhan Salon, tells us why new technologies were quickly absorbed by aboriginal tribes, how traditional knowledge about nature and the environment can help us to deal with an impending climate change and how isuma.tv exactly works.
Everybody uses mobile devices and computers. Less people know you need a very rare mineral called “tantal” to fabricate microchips this size, soon making it more precious than gold. This very moment, cruel wars are fought over this metal in Congo, resulting in more than 3.6 million deaths to date. The tantalum memorial was created in rememberence of this wars´ victims. In a very unique way, ancient telephone technology, the congolese community in london and storytelling are combined, resulting in the extrordinary piece “tantalon memorial”. a living memorial in a way, through which stories can be told and peolpe are connected, reminging us of the blood dripping from our stylish new devices.
Das Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin surrt wie ein warmer Bienenstock. Diese Metapher passt zum Thema, irgendwie. Künstler, Medienmenschen, Journalisten und Teilnehmer aus aller Welt haben sich hier getroffen, um zu sehen was die Transmediale 09 zum heurigen Motto “Deep North” zu sagen hat. Offensichtlich geht es um Grenzbereiche. Kunst, Technologie, Ökologie und Aktivismus sollen sich zuarbeiten und so das Thema Klimawandel in neuem Licht erscheinen lassen. Zu einem Großteil aber soll es um den Gedankenaustausch gehen. Leute in Verbindung bringen, gemeinsam Ideen für eine Zukunft voller Hochwasser und Tornados
schmieden. Auch wenn es anders wirken mag, der Schwerpunkt liegt doch beim Networking. Nicht nur hier im Realraum, wie wir bald feststellen.
Wir stehen vor dem Haupteingang und rauchen. Drinnen Verordnung, eh klar. Es ist eiskalt aber sonnig. Gleich wird uns der künstlerische Leiter der
Transmediale, Stephen Kovats, abholen und mit seinem Wagen in die kanadische Botschaft, genauer in den Marshall McLuhan Salon bringen. Dort werden wir mit dem renommierten Inuit-Politiker Paul Quassa bekannt gemacht. Das Projekt, das wir mit ihm besprechen nennt sich isuma.tv, eine Videoplattform im Internet, die primär für den Austausch indigener Filmemacher ins Leben gerufen wurde. Das klingt abwegiger als es eigentlich ist. Bald wird uns Paul Quassar erzählen, dass besonders Nomadenvölker sehr schnell neue Technologien für sich beansprucht haben. Weniger schriftlich als visuell orientiert, bietet ihnen das Netz die optimale Form des Austausches für traditionelles Wissen, aber auch Nachrichten und Alltägliches. Nicht von ungefähr treffen wir Quassar im McLuhan Salon.
Das einst von McLuhan prophezeite “Global Village” wurde bei isuma.tv nicht bloß zur Praxis. Es ist beinahe dessen Überaffirmation: Über modernste Technologien können so wissenschaftliche Diskurse über Klimawandel mit idigener Naturweisheit abgeglichen werden. Näheres erzählten uns die Beteiligten selbst, von Angesicht zu Angesicht – und über den Bildschirm erzählen sie es so der ganzen Welt.
————————————–
We are standing outside the “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” in Berlin, smoking. Forbidden indoors, all over Germany by now. We are waiting for Steven Kovats, the artistic director of the transmediale 09. He personally is going to drive us to the Canadian embassy, where the Marshall McLuhan Salon is located and we are about to meet the famous Inuit spokesman Paul Quassar to hear more about isuma.tv, a project director Kovats is very proud to present at this years transmediale. isuma.tv, as we are about to learn, is an independent platform for indigenous film-makers, exchanging traditional knowledge, as well as news and footage documenting an aboriginal way of life. Paul Quassar, sitting in the futuristic McLuhan Salon, tells us why new technologies were quickly absorbed by aboriginal tribes, how traditional
knowledge about nature and the environment can help us to deal with an impending climate change and how isuma.tv exactly works.
Petko Dourmana is a media artist and organiser of interdisciplinary projects between art and information technology. He is co-founder of the InterSpace Media Art Centre, Sofia, which is a non-commercial combination of artists, computer scientists and media activists.
Post Global Warming Survival Kit consists of a two-channel projection and shows infrared images of the North Sea as a post-apocalyptic landscape that the observer can only see by using a night-vision device. Dourmana portrays a dystopian scenario: a “nuclear winter” initiated by political groups or governments in order to solve the problem of global warming and the melting of the polar icecaps.
The installation aims to be a believable, technological fiction of a future in which human sensory experience has adapted. Without the technology posited within the Post Global Warming Survival Kit, we would be blind. With this in mind, the project asks us to consider our approach to environmental pollution and ecological destruction.
Socialize