highlike

Memo Akten and Katie Peyton Hofstadter

Embodied Simulation

‘Embodied Simulation’ is a multiscreen video and sound installation that aims to provoke and nurture strong connections to the global ecosystems of which we are a part. The work combines artificial intelligence with dance and research from neuroscience to create an immersive, embodied experience, extending the viewer’s bodily perception beyond the skin, and into the environment.
The cognitive phenomenon of embodied simulation (an evolved and refined version of ‘mirror neurons’ theory) refers to the way we feel and embody the movement of others, as if they are happening in our own bodies. The brain of an observer unconsciously mirrors the movements of others, all the way through to the planning and simulating execution of the movements in their own body. This can even be seen in situations such as embodying and ‘feeling’ the movement of fabric blowing in the wind. As Vittorio Gallese writes, “By means of a shared neural state realized in two different bodies that nevertheless obey to the same functional rules, the ‘objectual other’ becomes ‘another self’.”

ALWIN NIKOLAIS

Noumenon

A truly universal artist, the American Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) devoted his life to a radical form of staged art he called “dance theater.” Inspired (perhaps unconsciously) by the experiments of Bauhaus members such as Oskar Schlemmer and László Moholy-Nagy in the 1920s, Nikolais devised a style of abstract dance that encompassed costumes, stage sets, choreography, lighting, and music, all under his control. Also in 1963, Nikolais met analog synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog, who was at the time just starting his business in New York. He was fascinated by the sounds of Moog’s machines, and with the money provided by a a Guggenheim Fellowship, Nikolais bought the first ever commercially produced Moog synthesizer. It was the primary sound-source for all of Nikolais’ scores from 1963 to 1975. The instrument is now housed at the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

PEEPING TOM

Le Salon
dancing kings
This piece shows the mental, physical and financial decay of what was once a wealthy family. The aristocratic grandfather, a cornerstone of the family, unconsciously drags his children along with him as he tries to keep up appearances.Set in a once opulent drawing room – now a symbolic glory hole  – he slowly loses control of his house, his bladder and – ultimately – his mind. The househould he once led is now run by his offspring, who treat him as shabbily as they treat one another.

Can Buyukberber

Noumenon
Noumenon is a site-specific large-scale architectural and year-long installation in ZeroSpace, New York City; a compilation of Buyukberber’s last 4 year of audiovisual work and explorations; from emergent systems to out-of-body experiences; from transcendental objects to the symbols of the collective unconscious.

Jeppe Hein

Breath from Pineal to Hara

Coloured neon rings light up in a specified sequence behind a two-way mirror, layered with reflections of the visitors and the surrounding space. Starting with the inner ring, the individual rings light up one after the other. Once all rings are illuminated, they switch off again from the outer ring to the inside. The sequence and colours are reminiscent of the breathing technique from Pineal to Hara and the artwork invites the viewer to breath accordingly. Combined with the two-way mirror in front of it, it seems to awaken viewers to the present moment and make the usually unconscious process of breathing conscious for a while. Breathe in. Breathe out.

LARS VON TRIER

لارس فون ترير
拉斯·冯·特里尔
라스 폰 트리에
לארס פון טרייר
ラース·フォン·トリアー
Ларс фон Триер
melancholia
Truth be told, the best thing about Melancholia is its title. In an era where pop therapy abounds, true melancholy and its affinity to beauty needs to be rehabilitated—and of course differentiated from the more banal categories of “mental illness” and “depression.” In a pivotal phase of German Romanticism exemplified by Novalis’ poetry, the quintessentially melancholy category of “longing” is linked with a quest for the “unattainable.” Yet there’s also a tangibly utopian element to Novalis’ melancholy, personified by his dictum, “All representation rests on making present that which is not present.” Or as Max Blechman puts it in his essay “The Revolutionary Dream of Early German Romanticism, the Romantics pantheistic faith points to how art and religion are fundamentally one and the same activity. For is not art the desire to see the real in the ideal, to enliven the ideal behind the real, to transform unconscious idealism into conscious idealism—and is this not done through faith in the ideal?”

Iris van Herpen

Transmotion
The term transmotion not only depicts the process of change from one state, form, style or place to another, it is also the visionary perceptions of the seasons and the visual scenes of motion in art and literature. In parallel to Iris van Herpen’s drive to visualise the invisible, her quest to question reality and urge to explore the realms of impossibility, the project aims to narrate the process that ushers change, to materialise an unconscious state of meditation.

Katja Heitmann

Museum Motus Mori
Choreographer Katja Heitmann is concerned that movement is in danger of extinction. Especially movements that are not efficient and do not serve a direct cause. For example unconscious movements of everyday life; like the act of sitting or taking a walk. Or the movement of aging. Or maybe even the human sigh…
But aren’t those the movements that define us as human?

Jim Shaw

吉姆·肖
짐 쇼
ジム・ショー
Superman Body Parts

The practice of American artist Jim Shaw spans a wide range of both artistic media and visual imagery. Since the 1970s, Shaw has mined the detritus of American culture, finding inspiration for his artworks in comic books, pulp novels, rock albums, protest posters, thrift store paintings and advertisements. At the same time, Shaw has consistently turned to his own life and, in particular, his unconscious, as a source of artistic creativity.

Thomas Struth

Tokamak Asdex Upgrade Periphery | Max Planck IP,Garching
Since the end of the 1970s Thomas Struth dedicates his work to the world of buildings and constructions as a visible, physical and sculptural symbol of our civilisation.
Struth’s earlier works mainly comprised architectural shots of deserted streets, squares and houses which he aimed to capture by the term unconscious places. His more recent work, however, reveals his interest in sites of high technology and places of exhibition and display. Both his work Tokamak Asdex Upgrade Interior 2 (2009) which was taken at the Max-Planck-Institute in Garching and his photography of a massive concrete construction at the Acropolis Museum, Athens (2009) bear evidence of this new focus.
This excellent selection of Struth’s works enables us to trace his development as a Photographer from small-sized prints from his time as a student of Bernd and Hilla Becher to large-sized photographic tableaus, and to experience Struth’s sculptural understanding of architecture. In addition to that the installation is supplemented by his largest work, a shot of visitors in front of the Aquarium, Atlanta, Georgia (2013) which follows the pattern of his Museum shots.

Ralph Kistler & Jan M. Sieber

Monkey Business
file festival

A cuddly toy monkey, hanging on a wall like a Jumping Jack. With a friendly hello the puppet starts to react to the visitor’s movements and immediately apes every gesture with its arms and legs, its head and body. You can let the ape act smoothly or invite him to a wild dace.
But in a subtle way the monkey asks for another move you have never ever performed before. Playing the game you will lose control unconsciously and after the seductive encounter you might start wondering: What is all this monkey business about? Who pulls the strings?