Schiller once said: "Man only plays when he is in the fullest sense of the word a human being, and he is only fully a human being when he plays". In that sense, play is something coming from within one’s self. If you consider labor as externally motivated by money or prestige, play is motivated only by one's curiosity, their intrinsic motivation.What play ultimately means is following one’s interest, ignoring extrinsic factors. That's what I aim for.There's this question which has been one of my default thoughts for the past two years that materialised in several ways.What's the impact of us as individuals on society as a whole? And even further, what's the impact of society upon us?Those two questions really stick with me and play a big role in all my fields of interest. I think about them all the time, it all boils down to:
On a more conceptual level, I'm obsessed with upward and downward causation of complex systems and their emergent behavior.In that sense, I'm fascinated by abstraction. Drawing on the idea of Luhmann's system theory, we can think of our world as a big system, consisting of subsystems, consisting of subsystems and so on. Spare a minute?
Think about this: Out of curiosity, the first cell never died. It split. Since then, through innumerable divisions, mutations and iterations, this cell has intrinsically grown into one giant hyper-organism, consisting of ameba and algae, insects and birds, fungi and trees, and me and you. From this perspective, our bodies are just instances of that very first cell that split: In constant exchange with ourselves. There is no other, boundaries get blurry, the relevance of bodies fades away, measures of comparison become irrelevant: Behavior is just an emergent outcome of each interaction of one cell with another cell, society is just the outcome of interactions between individuals with other individuals. This hyper-organism is constantly dealing with its own existence, posing questions and exploring its surroundings out of curiosity. If you want to learn more about my projects, drop me a mail.
A few selected artefacts I created over time include Opinion Flow, a work that drew me more towards societal dynamics. Significant Other and Hybrid Classifications build upon my interest in artificial intelligence, dealing with our fears of autonomous, self-learning agents. Radicalart.info is a backup of Remko Scha's website. I received his permission to preserve this important piece of art history just weeks before he died. A not A is a playful, short video about logic and our daily prejudices, while Simulations as liquefied Realities creates a multi-layered narrative and stream of consciousness, posing the question of what it means to be real.
Opinion Flow Drawing from my general interest in upward & downward causation, I wondered: How much do we influence each other? What do I perceive as true, to whom do I give faith? The work Opinion Flow was created as part of my fellowship at Cité International des Arts Paris in 2019 in cooperation with several sociologists. The core question asked how ideas, ideologies and opinions circulate in society and how much we as individuals are shaped by social, political and social structures. The result is a simulation that runs in a loop. As time goes by, it shows an increase in opinion heterogeneity.
Significant Other The installation deals with two core questions of artificial intelligence: How does matter become something capable of thought and why are we, as a society, as a single subject, so afraid of these independently acting, collective systems? The starting point of these considerations is the dystopian narrative around Grey Goo. Grey Goo describes a swarm of nanorobots, which represents a decentralized, non-hierarchical system. Due to its nature, this swarm can take on any form, haptic and material. The nanorobots can replicate themselves and communicate independently. In dystopia, they devour all organic matter and transform the earth into a desert planet. The installation consists of, among other things, two video works: One deals with the subtle fear of intelligent, collective systems, while simultaneously in the second video such a system learns to work independently to circumvent obstacles by means of artificial intelligence.
Hybrid Classifications Is there such a thing as a hybrid between technology and nature? And if so, what could that look like? Can artificial intelligence imagine this hybrid? An idea so different from human imagination and classification? These questions were the starting point for the large-format installation Hybrid Classifications, consisting of a video, a fibreglass relief, and an engraving.
radicalart.info The website radicalart.info was very valuable for me in the development of my artistic practice. The author Remko Scha has collected many examples of conceptual art from the last 150 years there. I came into contact with him in 2015. He wrote to me: „Excuses for my delay in answering you. My health is very bad and I may not live much longer.“ As a result we talked about the ephemeral nature of art on the Internet and I decided to secure his website for the future .
A not A Our everyday behaviour is determined by prejudices, cognitive distortions and thinking errors. Many of these unconscious errors are represented in science as quantities. I have visualized these quantities in a video and cut them so quickly one after the other that the individual quantities produce a flicker.
Simulations as liquefied Realities Heinz von Förster bursts that all the theories are true, Marvin Minsky recognizes that it is quite possible that we live in a simulation. Hanna Arendt laments that we don‘t know anything about ourselves, the witness in Rashomon doesn‘t know anything anyway. The work deals with complex systems and their effects on a perceived truth beyond facts, simulating a social media feed of a smartphone.
Curating Curating is very closely connected with my artistic practice. It's about connecting different interests, topics and people together to create a context and certain atmosphere in space: Putting entities in relation and thereby creating a narrative, a story. Usually, I work along with Johannna Markert & Lukas Ludwig, with whom I run the non-profit KunstvereinAnorak. We work as a trio and together we have realized many projects including Affairs, Gemini, Bells, Nupta Cadavera, In a Room and Mixed Feelings.
Counting over 120 now, which is really motivating. If you want to become a member as well, feel free to join us!
Founded by some friends a few years ago before our studies, the non-profit has now grown into a lively organization for contemporary art.
UX architect and digital product design I'm a digital product designer focusing on crafting intuitive user experiences and design systems for B2B software, web & mobile products. With over 5 years of full-time experience, I have helped three dozen startups & SMEs iterate, prototype and validate ideas in order for them to scale up fast, from idea to market. My approach is user-first, with a focus on strategy, usability, and solving complex problems. If you want to learn more, follow this link to receive my portfolio showcasing my most recent projects. I also offer UX audits for interested clients.
My clients include companies like 8tree, Xylene, Olgäle Stiftung, Kramer, Mytigate, Rug Pull Index, among many others.
I created my first website in 2007, showcasing my photography. Soon afterwards, I started creating websites for clients and ever since the projects have grow bigger with the growing needs of the clients. My biggest project so far span over two years, managing a team of up to 12 remote software engineers.
Video I started video and photography back with my skateboard & snowboard friends. Over the years, as they got their first sponsors, I was eager to expand my skills and get their photos printed in magazines. Since then, I have heavily expanded my practice: From Storytelling to planning and conducting shootings, editing, and postproduction. I now have moved more towards commercial photoshootings: Focussing on architecture, people, food, and still life. I'm open for freelance gigs. Feel free to contact me.
Teaching I got into teaching undergraduates and graduates right after my studies and it has been an incredible experience so far. Following Jean-Joseph Jacotot's philosophy, education should be open to everyone. I share his belief that all people have equal intelligence and everyone could learn anything.So far, I have given seminars, lectures and workshops at ABK Stuttgart, Merz Akademie, Centre for Innovative Media Rijeka, and HFBK Hamburg.
Mostly, because I want to try somethingnew. I love diving into new fields.Hardly a topic where I can't find anything fascinating.But then of course, it's also to make ends meet and create new sources of income and connect my existing experience with new ideas.
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