Aram Bartholl – Blog

Good friend Christoph Meierhans shows a piece called: “Remarks by Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation, and Bill Clinton, Former President of the United States. Microsoft Government Leaders Forum Africa 2006 Cape Town, South Africa July 11, 2006″ at UPDATE II, biennal for digital art Gent, Belgium.

Wow, what a long title. But probably just the name of the file he is ripping with this nice installation. If you are around Brussels just take a look at this by machines reenacted conference before the exhibititon is closing.

UPDATE II, biennal for digital art
kunstenplatform zebrastraat
zebrastraat 32/001, 9000 Gent, Belgium

exhibition: 20/04/2008 until 06/07/2008
opening hours: wed-sun 14:00-18:00

“Remarks by…” is a re-enactment by computers of a conference on the evolution of computer technology and itʼs assumed benefits for the african continent. Originally taking place in Cape Town, south Africa, on July 11 2006, the conference features Mr. Bill Gates, Mr. Bill Clinton, Mr. Cheik Diarra, Chairman of Microsoft Africa and moderator of the talk, Ms. the Minister of Education of South Africa, a minister from Kenya, as well as three audience members asking questions.
The installation includes eight computers of different brands, generations and types, all comfortably placed on the chairs of a conference room. Each computer plays the role of one of the lecturers or audience members, speaking their respective lines with their generic synthetic voice. The words are heard through the integrated loudspeakers of the computers.
As a computer talks, itʼs screen flashes according to the rhythm of the voice, from black to white, respectively from white to black, depending on the skin color of the person speaking.
Throughout the 80 minutes loop of the re-enacted conference, the visitors may enter the conference room and take place on one of the free seats in order to listen to the speakers, next to the computers playing the roles of their fellow audience members.
As is usual in long lectures, some listeners ocasionally get sleepy. When computers get sleepy, their screensaver turns on. When this occurs for a longer period of time, soft snoring sounds might be heard.

(original transcript of the conference available at: www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/speeches/2006/07-11GLFAfrica.mspx)

Pure Evil Solo Show
4th July-2nd August 2008
at INK_D

Ink_d
96 North Road
Brighton
BN1 1YE
Gallery/Studio – 01273 645299

Among a couple of openings on busy Brunnenstrasse Berlin I liked the show “Species of Spaces” at Pitrowski gallery last friday. Kym Ward among six Chelsea Art College graduates acted as a/is the curator observing the show on a set of surveillance screens. Nice performance!

In the first moment I had to think of the art robbery which happend at ATM gallery lately. Pure Evil got his piece “You can’t buy happiness-steal it” stolen during the opening. For that reason surveillance cams and an observer panel in the gallery window would make perfect sense!
;-)

“Species of Spaces”
Line Ellegaard, Tom Fleming, Edwin Pennicott, Julia Prezewowsky, Kym Ward, James Whittingham
27. Juni bis 26. Juli 2008

Pitrowski Berlin
Brunnenstrasse 5
10119 Berlin

And again a commercial in computer game adaption style. Hmm… Although I’ve never seen a first person soccer game on PC or console so far. Had anyone every tried to write a first person soccer game? I am not so much into sports games but a networked first person soccer with a Wii-mote on your foot should be fun. ;-)

NYC has some waterfalls now. But who are these two funny guys on the boat? ;-)
Thx to Jerry for pointing out the event! (Berlin has just Olaf’s factory but doesn’t show his art.)

More spiritual streetart. Seams to become popular.
( Again on Auguststrasse Berlin, Artist?)

The Image Fulgurator by Julius von Bismarck I recently posted about made it through the whole blogosphere: from Make ( thx Jonah!) , to BoingBoing and finally to Wired. No doubt, the project is just brilliant ( a milestone in my opinion). Charlie Sorrel from wired explains the piece very detailed and brings in some context in his article. For example the ” Enjalbert Photo Revolver de Poche, a French gun-cam from 1883…” (on the left) and other camera gun projects. Nice article!

As you might know Germany is quite crazy about soccer right now. On Sunday there will be the European championship final game Germany-Spain.

Of course the neighbour kids are playing soccer in the backyard all day long. One of them created these beautiful pair of bark shin guards. Nice!
:-)

I recently dropped in at Gitte Weise gallery
on Tucholskystrasse Berlin and saw the current solo show of Ingo Gerken (who is also running “West Germany” among others). I like his very simple and clever way of day to day life like comments in his photograph series and installations a lot.

Some more pictures and text on the gallery website.

Ingo Gerken
“Short Moments of Inner Calmness”
16.05. – 28.06.2008
Tucholskystrasse 47
10117 Berlin

picture:
“Tower Upside Down” 2008 all rights by Ingo Gerken

SP38 turns Auguststr. Berlin inside out, into a gallery. Good proportions and nice rhythm. ;-)

This traffic light on Invalidenstrasse Berlin takes ages before it switches to green for pedestrians. Additionally it has an antenna sensing the aproaching tramway. In that case it takes even longer before you may cross the street. I want a jammer for that signal! Hmm…what frequency this tramway antenna might run on?

Ah, let’s get this going… http://www.ladyada.net/make/wavebubble/

(Yeh, I know. Just we germans would wait for a green light.)

Ars Electronica announced golden nica winners for 2008! In the category INTERACTIVE ART Julius von Bismarck got a golden nica for the Image Fulgurator. This piece is just awesome. Congrats Julius! Good job, jury!

The Image Fulgurator is a kind of inverted photo camera physically manipulating other peoples pictures in realtime. The exact moment someone takes a picture the Fulgurator does a flash projection onto the photographed object. A sensor detects other camera flashes and synchronizes the flash projection to them. In case of the movie below tourists end up having weird text messages in their pictures. A Checkpoint Charlie sign has an additional message on it but you can’t see it in real. This is a good picture explaining the setup.

Wow! I really like this piece a lot. Just imagine what you could do with this technology. (That’s why he is going for patent.)

The Deutsche Post has a new high security “lock” preventing customers from cash machine scam. This green plastic piece in front of the cash machine slot has a holographic lock on it. Wow! that makes me feel really safe.
Hmm … wait a moment. How do I know that Deutsche Post has placed it there?

Hey! How about some cash machine street art pieces? ;-)

Yes, I like simple wood constructions.

at
Antje Wachs

by
Tomáš Svoboda

I like the perfect symmetry of this work. Almost another clerical streetart piece.
;-)

New adbusting piece by The-Wa on just.blogsport.de. Poor ebay campaign. Good job!

via rebel:art

no comment. ;-)
(found on Adalberstrasse, Berlin)

Another locative public note I found this morning. Someone asks his/her neighbours for a w-lan connection. Thats excactly what I advice people who are asking me for which internet provider to choose. Ask your neighbours! There is so much wifi out there …

And I am convinced that paper based local blackboards are still the best way for local community communication.

“You don’t need it” –> Web 2.0 ;-)

(Ok, you could add up a high res webcam showing the board on the web for the people who would never leave the keyboard.)

A nice clerical variation of Pixelator. TV-Filter is also mentioned within a series of related pixel pieces on antiadvertisingagency.com

Posterchild takes Round 4 on the ongoing alteration of the HD screens installed over subway entrances in New York. Building on the Pixelator, Posterchild goes a more devout route with a stained glass effect. “Hold Fast Sell Out” was built with 1/2 inch melamine, screwed together and coated with diffusion material – rather impressive construction.

Streetart exhibition in Barcelona.

17 June 2008
20:00
see flyer

www.vaquerosdebarcelona.org

would love to join …

A typical lost/found message in public space. I like these kind of local-public letters. The way how it was attached to the sign made me stop. Taking a closer look the text seems pretty awkward. “… please return my bag to the lost property office without the glas of tomatos…”

Or is it maybe streetart? ;-)

(found on Schlegelstrasse, Berlin)

Another fake on the realism topic. :-)

‘Warcraft’ Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing ‘Warcraft’

Although this is not a typical virtual-real translation it has a lot to it. It is more likely an underground-mainstream translation made up by some REAL SMART marketing people. I don’t want to know how much more it costs to produce a fake beer crate counter instead of just stacking beer crates. But I like these kind of fakes in everyday life.

Watch out for the hidden trojan Coke attack!
Uuaahhh!!!
;-)

On my way to the DIY store I stumbled upon Dieter Lutsch’s foam pieces at VLASAK a small nice new gallery in Berlin Wedding.
Nnice! Hmm… how about a foam piece in much bigger scale? … ah there are some proposals in his portfolio.

Booster
2008

Wasser, Spülmittelkonzentrat, Teichbelüfter, Plastikflaschen,
Plastikrohr, Glasplatte, PVC-Schlauch
70 cm x 230 cm

(Borsigstr. Berlin)

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin also known as Stabi is a very popular library in Berlin where students and PhD candidates like to work in.
I am not sure what Hans Scharoun would think of this virus which took over Stabi. Temporary tubes and ventilation shafts are climbing the facade and penetrating the surface in almost Centre Pompidou style.

Nice piece!

The Landreform carousel yesterday was great fun. In the beginning the fire was really big and we thought for a moment the event might end up in SUPERFLEX style. ;-)
Best piece I’ve seen so far at BB5.

Some more pics on trendbeheer.com through comments by kolonel. Thx!

LANDREFORM Carousel
by Matthias Einhoff, Philip Horst, Markus Lohmann, Harry Sachs, Daniel Seiple

www.skulpturenpark.org/
www.berlinbienniale.de

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

I just finished the documentation for my latest project “Friends” which has been premiered at Futuresonic 2008 a month ago. It was a lot of fun and it came out really well. Friends will be shown again during Futuresonic-Leeds and Futuresonic-London sometime 2008/2009. Don’t miss to become part of the Friends network. ;-)

link – Friends project page.

Credits:
- Thanks to Veronika Becker and Holger Lindmüller for advice, design and production assistance during preparation phase in Berlin.
- Thanks to Kit Turner (Futuresonic art production assistance) and Ben Harding (Futuresonic tech. and exhibition architecture) for the production in Manchester.
- Thanks to my exellent Friends workshop assistance Charlotte Barnes and to the volunteers: Josephine, Dan, Sofia, Maya … among others.
- Thanks to the whole Futuresonic 2008 team for support!

Another car piece by the artist group SUPERFLEX.
I like their works a lot. The Burning Car is quite symbolic for rising the oil price and the hungry 3rd world. And it fits very well to Berlin. Since some years a group of left radical burn cars in the street regularly.