Bots
FILE 2024 | Installations
International Electronic Language Festival

Bots presents a computer-controlled society through a series of algorithmically controlled humanoid avatars that appear on physical carpets using augmented reality (AR). Real-time performances synthesize human behavioral patterns into a formalized digital social study. Omnipresent, combined with our devices and incorporated into virtual environments, the work reminds us of our own digitalized world, in which we are surrounded by invisible bots.

Bio

Giulia Bowinkel (born 1983) and Friedemann Banz (born 1980) live in Berlin and have worked together under the name Banz & Bowinkel since 2009. In 2007 they graduated from the Art Academy with Albert Oehlen and started making art with computers . His work encompasses computer-generated imagery, animation, augmented reality, virtual realities and installations.

moving in concert
Moving in Concert imagines a universe where humans, technologies and natural materials coexist to create an abstract set of movement. Inspired by how bodies are sensorially affected by living in a digitalized world, the performance explores a poetics of plasticity, abstraction and imagination.

digitalized
“Tron, a cult film from 1982, takes place in two parallel universes: the real and the virtual. Through a laser that converts real people into pixels, the world of Tron appears like a strange foreign world without sun, where androids live surrounded by 3D landscapes. The film has a strong retro character given by the era of production, which coexists with a high-tech nature. Both aspects are the basis of my collection. It consists in androgyn, straight silhouettes out of wool, leather, cotton and lack. Through different techniques I have created cube patterns on the surface of some of the materials. Giving the designs a technical yet minimalist character.”

Digitalized Body
“Corpo Digitalizado” is a work that requires public participation and, therefore, addresses subjects related to contemporary understanding of the human body and its relation with the machine and how the body acts before it.
The artist proposes that the public stay inside a booth for a few seconds and donate a small part of their time and bodies to be digitized by a scanner.

digitalized