Sie nennen es Realität / They Call It Reality

In the framework of “Crosskick – German Art Associations Play Host to European Art Schools” a project of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft deutscher Kunstvereine (ADKV)

From 6 to 21 October 2007, in the framework of “Crosskick – German Art Associations Play Host to European Art Schools” a project of the Organization of German Art Associations (Arbeitsgemeinschaft deutscher Kunstvereine, ADKV), Hartware MedienKunstVerein is showing selected works by diploma candidates and graduates of the New Media Studies course of the Media & Art programme of the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). The works presented in the show They Call It Reality are distinctive for the wide notion of media art displayed as well as for a broad range of themes, artistic approaches and an extended notion of what is public. Installations, net projects, collaborative platforms, urban interventions and performative formats re-negotiate the boundaries with visual and audio art.

The fourteen exhibited works intelligently query and deconstruct that which is generally taken to be reality. Two major thematic blocks can be distinguished: “Computing Space” and “Deconstructions of Reality”. The first block includes Alex Antener’s experimental set-up Ich denke, das bin ich (2005), which records what a group of people say in their sleep and attempts to initiate a dialogue among sleepers by feeding in real time the nocturnal utterances of one participant into the bedroom of the next. Roland Roos, Rodrigo Derteano, Marc Widmer and Valentina Vuksic have created works explicitly experimenting with sound. While Roos’ Yours to Keep / For At Least Two And Mine (FALTAM) (2007) enduringly upsets the auditory perception of visitors to the exhibition, Marc Widmer’s Legoloop (2006) and Valentina Vuksic’s Harddisko (2004) operate with experimental music instruments and quasi-concertante hardware. Rodrigo Derteano’s The Distance (2005) fathoms the acoustic (in)finities of the internet. Opera Calling (2007) by the !media group Bitnik and Sven König deploys a bug contraption to make the performances of Zurich Opera available over the city’s telephone network, and marks the point of transition to the second major thematic block.

“Deconstructions of Reality” includes André Gwerder’s installation I happen to know this for a fact (2005), which interweaves menacing scenarios and conspiracy theories gleaned from various radical newsgroups to produce frighteningly real characters. Fabian Voegeli introduces us to scene-of-crime forensic techniques in Orakelraum: Bahnen, Spuren, Profile (2006). Marc Lee, Annina Rüst and Luca Degunda tackle new and old message formats. Marc Lee’s Breaking the News (2006) enables visitors to compile a personalized and elaborately (audio-)visualized news broadcast at the press of a button, so to speak. For every report of genetically manipulated rice found on the net by a search engine, Annina Rüst’s eRiceCooker (2006) cooks a pan of rice that is then offered to exhibition visitors for their consumption. The MZZ (Mein Zeitungs Zeugs) (2005) project by Luca Degunda for its parts trains a subjective view on the current news reported by the NZZ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung) newspaper. New forms of public sphere are examined in Download Finished by the !media group Bitnik und Sven König, in Sofatrips.com by Mario Purkathofer and the Mikro TV / Telestreet Reader (2005) by Thomas Comiotto. Download Finished (2007) declares as genuine artistic material the artefacts and/or flaws found in films compressed and exchanged over internet markets. Mario Purkathofer’s sofatrips.com travel agency develops a Backbone Odyssee (2007) for Dortmund, a journey along the network nodes between Zurich and Dortmund. And Thomas Comiotto’s Proxivision Reader (2005) documents the meanwhile almost historical Telestreet TV movement in Italy.

The New Media Studies course offered by the Media & Art programme of Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) is among Europe’s foremost media-art degrees. Artists and media authors receive instruction from staff including Knowbotic Research (Prof. Christian Hübler, Prof. Yvonne Wilhelm, Alexander Tuchacek), Prof. Margarete Jahrmann (until 2006), Dr. Nils Röller, Prof. Giaco Schiesser and Dr. Felix Stalder.

Alongside the exhibition of artistic projects in the PHOENIX Halle a number of public events will take place on the opening weekend: an introduction to the New Media Studies course of the Media & Art programme of Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), presentations of projects completed there; discussions and workshops on the current transformation being undergone by the concept of media art.

Inke Arns

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In the framework of "Sie nennen es Realität":


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Sie nennen es Realität / They Call It Reality
The New Media Studies course of the Media & Art programme of Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) as a guest of the HMKV, in the framework of CROSSKICK – German Art Associations Play Host to European Art Schools” a project of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft deutscher Kunstvereine (ADKV)
6 to 21 October 2007

Curator/Artistic Director: Dr. Inke Arns, HMKV
Junior Curator: Francis Hunger, HMKV
Technical Director: Uwe Gorski, HMKV
Managing Director: Susanne Ackers, HMKV
Organisation: Francis Hunger, HMKV, Christina von Rotz, ZHdK

Hartware MedienKunstVerein
in PHOENIX Halle Dortmund
Hochofenstr. / corner Rombergstr.
Dortmund-Hörde

Opening times
Thu + Fri 11 – 22 h
Sat + Sun 11–20 h
Closed Mon – Wed

Funded by:
Kulturstiftung des Bundes
Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK)
Kulturbüro Stadt Dortmund
dortmund-project
PHOENIX
LEG
tonart