Aesthetics of Virtual Matter
Construction/Destruction WS22/23 - Documentation by Maximilian Götz
I started this Semester with a plan. I had a pretty fixed image of what I wanted to do in my head. I wanted to create an interactive space with a control-room aesthetic that would consist of many digital in- and outputs. Lots of screens, speakers, a surveilling camera that would film the inside of the room and feed some of the screens and a midi interface to modulate the audiovisual experience. In hindsight I feel like I was trying to reproduce a lot of aesthetics that I have come to identify as media art. Walls of screens portraying chaotic imagery, feedback loops and interactive installations.
Washed clean by well rendered Fantasies it feels immanent to ask wether there has ever been any reality to begin with. So I look deep into the screen with square eyes and ask the pixels: Are you there? Or am I just TV?
During the course we had a lecture on conceptual art, that inspired me quite a lot. Looking at very simplistic, playful pieces and performances had an impact on me that I didn‘t expect. My plans suddenly seemed very convoluted, overcomplicated and formless. I felt the need to tidy it up. I took a couple steps back from the finished visual in my head and thought about the concepts surrounding it. I have learned during the past semesters, that I like to approach projects with an open curiosity more than with a finished product in mind. So I shifted my perspective and started to dive deeper into the themes, treating the project more as an exploration then a construction process.
The theme that inspired me at this time was mostly a sense of being overwhelmed by the digital space, its massive output of content and my inability to look away. My space was supposed to be cozy yet overstimulating, a small retreat to escape from the outside and indulge in obsessive self reflection. I was also inspired, by the overall theme of the unnatural.
Rethinking these themes I stumbled again and again over the word noise. I used it mainly to describe the experience I had with the flood of digital and overall content. But as I dove deeper into the topic I felt like I was approaching something much larger, more universal, than a mere metaphor for my experience. The immanence of noise in visuals, sounds, radiation and statistics led me to questions about chance, form, information and data. I was manly interested in the aesthetic implications though. Noise appears as a natural phenomenon as well, as a creative tool. When used as a tool the most interesting function of noise to me is the capability to create natural looking shapes. Many of my experiments show strong structural similarity with clouds and river valleys.
The creation process was driven by experimentation. Since I was approaching a realm of randomness and ambiguity, this seemed the most authentic way to go about it. I worked most of the time in Touchdesigner and played around with old TubeTVs. I got the TVs for free or a minor price on eBay for collecting them. Since I don‘t have a car, this meant I was rolling through Weimar, all the way to Suhl, with my trusted Bollerwagen.
In Touchdesigner I built feedback loops and noise based interactions wich I rendered and collected as video files. For the presentation I built a noise Sequencer that plays the collected videos in random order and length.
To connect my laptop with the Tobe TVs I needed to get digital to analog-adapters to build a bridge from the HDMI-output to the SCART-input of the TVs.
For the Soundtrack I recorded myself playing the noise generator of my synthesizer.
Substance without meaning. Data without information. Structure without order. This work invites the viewer to contemplate the aesthetic value of chaos and entropy in information. The patterns presented are a result of the artist's conceptual investigation of noise and have been curated for their visual appeal.
The final installation consists of Three TubeTVs, a set of headphones and a sitting cushion. The two TVs on the sides display the sequenced Touchdesigner renders while the one in the middle shows continuous static noise. On the headphones you can listen to the Soundtrack. It was exhibited at the Winterwerkschau under the Title, Aesthetics of virtual matter.
The piece invites visitors to sit down and zone into the experience. The static noise and the calming Soundscape create a meditative Zen like Atmosphere. The two other TVs in contrast show randomized video sequences so while you look at the hypnotizing Static there is more colorful dynamic noise going on in the corner of your eyes. It is up to the visitor to decide wether the experience is pleasant, relaxing or disorienting and overwhelming.
On the last day of the exhibition I changed a key detail about the Installation. I changed the the middle screen to display two life sized hands on top of the Noise with the request charge yourself. This new element was supposed to turn the focus towards the material body of the images, to create a physical interaction between the visitor the image and the machine. It invites the visitor to put their Hands on or very close to the display surface. When you do this you will feel a warm electric tingle on your skin.
I like this way of changing the piece spontaneously. It reflects quite well how my creative process works and I plan to do more variations and iterations of this work.
In conclusion this semester I learned shifting my perspective from the final product to the working process, I very much enjoyed accumulating works over the course of the semester in contrast to having separated planing and building phases. I also realized, that I really like working thematically on large abstract concepts (like noise or void).