Martin Müller

καλὸς κἀγαθός (“good and sublime”) is the ancient greek describtion of the ideal man. He combines his well-trained body with an excellent mind. He is #beautiful #athletic #sophisticated. He is ready for combat at all times, for his body and mind are potent. You can find him carved out of stone, kept for eternity – but also in the eternal stream of images on Instagram.

Under the title #OMGuSoMasc I started an artistic research about concepts of masculinity and aesthetic modes of representation that are tethered with them. The research seeks a critical deconstruction of those aesthetics, beginning at the origin of western male body representation with ancient Greek sculptures and building a bridge towards today‘s instagram feeds. Out the frame of #OMGuSoMasc several photo and video works and a performance emerged.

With static photographic collages I began to fragment body parts and overlay them towards infinity in ironic and destructive manners. Now I am looking for ways to translate those modes of fragmentation and superposition into something more haptic, materialized, and lively.

https://www.instagram.com/kalos_kagathos/

In the next step I want to translate those virtual representations back into something corporeal and haptical. I started this re-translation with two different approaches. The first one tries out three dimensional experientiality, still bound to virtual space. The following experiment emerged from my contact with the means of virtual reality:

The second approach - the one I am currently working on - aims at a translation into actual space. I am building a performative installation. Or rather, I am half growing, half building it... The installation will have an organic feel, reminiscent of human bodies and will foster my practice of deconstruction. Sensors, micro controllers, and micro motors help the installation to come to life and react to its environment. As long as everything else in the encompassing space is absolutely still, the installation performs organically fluid movements. However, the moment another being enters the space - and as long as the other moves - the installation will stop and remain still. Only if the space is free of movement the exhibit gets mobile again.

The outer shell of the installation will be made of a leather-like material: dried and treated SCOBY. This organic material, originally more of a waste-product left over from the production of Kombucha has a robust, skin-like but also translucent quality. It gives the installation the air of something natural, anatomical, living but at the same time reveals its mechanics, if you look closely. However, since growing the SCOBY in big patches and big quantities can be somewhat delicate and takes time, I do not have enough material yet for the construction of the installation. Nonetheless I did a first experimental tryout of a kinetic sculpture using fabrics as a sort of sketch: