From the Society of the Spectacle to the Consciousness Industry
Warren Neidich From the Society of the Spectacle to the Consciousness Industry 06.20. – 07.23.2023 Opening Tue., 06.20.2023. 2 pm Digital Art Center, Taipei No. 180, Fuhua Rd., Shilin Dist., Taipei City, Taiwan Artist Talk Tue., 06.20.2023, 2:30 – 6 pm Moderator and Organizer : Hsiang-Yun Huang SpeakersWarren NeidichMind-Models in Our Moment of the Consciousness Industry Ying-Tung LinFake News and Information Manipulation：The Polluted Epistemic Environment and Mental Mechanism Alex Taek-Gwang LeeThe Invention of the Brain Experience the exhibition “From the Society of the Spectacle to the Consciousness Industry” by Warren Neidich at the Digital Art Center, Taipei. Running from June 20th to July 23rd, this thought-provoking showcase delves into the themes of mind, cognition, and power in the digital age. This neon sculpture, commissioned by the DAC and adapted for the Digital Art Center, is a striking symbol of our consumer society. The flickering neon phrases resemble digitalized brain neurons, influenced by the wealth of data available. In our daily lives, screens and smartphones dominate, and we constantly engage in mental labour. Our thoughts and experiences shape a collective consciousness driven by the data we generate. Search engines and social media platforms externalize our shared memory, shaping our perception and creating filter bubbles that control our view of the world. The relentless influx of information, crucial for the attention economy, distorts our understanding. We have become data ourselves. Our physical bodies are inseparable from the digital realm, representing the embodiment of information. Together, we form an expansive network consciousness, toiling as overworked labourers in this emerging era. Neidich’s artworks compel us to contemplate the intersection of technology, consciousness, and our challenges in the digital age.
Joy & Revolution – Hara Shin, Dawn Woolley
Previous slide Next slide Joy & Revolution – Hara Shin, Dawn Woolley DISKURS Berlin Novalisstraße 7, 10115 Berlin, Germany Opening Thu., 08.06.2023, 6- 9 pm Duration 08.06.-14.07.2023 Live performance – Dawn Woolley– Date & Time: Thu, 08.06.2023, 7 pm– Location: Diskurs BerlinThe captivating act within the installation pays homage to the iconic L’Oreal Infallible Sculpt makeup advertisement. Workshop – Dawn Woolley– Date & Time: Wed., 21.06.2023, 6 pm– Location: Diskurs BerlinThe workshop, designed to span approximately 1.5 to 2 hours, will begin with Dawn Woolley’s brief talk and introduction. This interactive workshop empowers attendees to express themselves artistically, fostering self-exploration and creativity at different levels. Diskurs Berlin has announced the selection of two exceptional female artists, Dawn Woolley and Hara Shin, as part of the Joy & Revolution open call. The “Joy and Revolution” concepts are relevant in our social, political, and economic dialogues. Joy encompasses the celebration of life, the pursuit of excellence, and a deeper understanding of reality. As a transformative force, Revolution represents a means to instigate social change and address existing injustices. The relationship between Joy and Revolution is subject to varying perspectives. Some argue that joy can act as a catalyst for revolution by challenging oppressive systems and structures. Conversely, Revolution can bring about joy through a collective sense of purpose and shared objectives. These concepts have a dynamic interplay, mutually inspiring and reinforcing one another. Hara Shin delves into exploring alternative experiences, sensory perceptions, and movements within virtual and physical spaces, utilizing a range of mediums such as VR, web, spoken word, graphics, and installation. The artwork reveals avatars, fragmented identities, and displaced realities, shedding light on the influence of gender roles, education, stereotypes, technology, climate change, and personal identities. The exhibition reconstructs perspectives and reflects on isolation and coexistence by dismantling the colonized association between technology, nature, and humanity. By merging materials, nature, organs, and agents, Shin’s artwork pushes boundaries and reshapes our perception of space and time, giving rise to interconnected micro-narratives that transcend limitations. Through this exhibition, Shin challenges the established link between technology, nature, and humanity, reconstructing perspectives and fostering reflection on isolation and coexistence. https://shinhara.net/ Dawn Woolley‘s thought-provoking installation, “Rebel Selves,” confronts societal norms surrounding gender and beauty within selfies. Visitors can capture queer selfies that defy these norms and question traditional ideals. Woolley employs glitch and abstraction techniques to disrupt conventional modes of perception, urging a reevaluation of normative standards. The project aims to liberate individuals from marketable, individualistic identities and embrace a more inclusive and non-binary self-concept. The performance references an advertisement for L’Oreal makeup, highlighting the perpetual need to present oneself as “selfie-ready.” Selfies contribute to self-surveillance and reinforce beauty ideals, often leading to diminished self-esteem. Woolley’s performance promises to engage spectators with its thought-provoking references to contemporary beauty standards and the pervasive selfie culture. https://www.dawnwoolley.com/ For media inquiries, interview requests, or further information, please contact:Contact Name: Jung Me Chai, DISKURS Berlininfo@discursus.infohttps://www.discursus.info/ ° Leeds Arts University kindly supports Dawn Woolley’s installation.
The spirits that I summoned
The spirits that I summoned KIMGO Berlin John-Schehr-Straße 1, 10407 Berlin, Germany Opening Sat., 08.07.2023, 6 – 9 pm – Opening with BBQ and cocktail bar Duration 08.07. – 30.07.2023 Peter Böhnisch, Media Esfarjani, Paris Giachoustidis, Björn Geipel, Lukas Glinkowski, Philip Grözinger, Nschotschi Haslinger, Stefan Hirsig, Bianca Kennedy, Filip Markiewicz, Aris Papapaschalis, Paul Pretzer, Charlie Stein, Anna Steinert, Ruprecht von Kaufmann, Sador Weinsčlucker curated by Peter Ungeheuer
Clément Claudius
Joy & Revolution – Clément Claudius Sur la plage, les pavés(On the beach, the paving stones) DISKURS Berlin Novalisstraße 7, 10115 Berlin, Germany Opening Thu, 27.04.2023, 6 – 9 PM Duration 27.04. – 02.06.2023 Curated by Peter Ungeheuer Hercules 2023 The Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus and Alcmene, better known in Germany by his Roman name Hercules, has been functionalised since antiquity by being used as a myth of identification through various attributions. While he served the Ancien Régime as a symbol of the king’s power and the Jacobins as a deterrent figure, the revolutionary forces also used him as an allegory for the power of the people. If you like, he fought on both sides without being asked. If Hercules were to be harnessed for the demonstrators’ side today, the myth would certainly have to be rewritten. Since many demonstrators often feel like revolutionaries, it is legitimate to imagine the Hercules of today. This is how one could understand the work of Clément Claudius, who shows a small museum of the physical props of demonstrations in the rooms of DISKURS Berlin. As a Frenchman (and environmental activist) living in Germany, he is particularly interested in the relationship between demonstration and revolution, in 1789 as well as in 2023. Sur la plage, les pavés deals with the world of the streets, partly of street fighting. So a heraldic hero could actually be useful in this context. The classic attributes of Hercules in artistic representations are the skin of the Nemean lion he killed, a club, as well as bow and arrow, which at the same time are the tools of his heroic deeds. Language was certainly not a preferred weapon of this ancient warrior; in the age of the media flood of images, several layers of taglines which by superposition become illegible (3 x 14 slogans, réforme des retraites, 2023), but also a pair of megaphones that neutralise themselves here (Mégaphones aphones, 2023). Roadblocks existed at least as early as the times of the French Revolution; this is where the phrase “going to the barricades” comes from. In the work 小沙龙 (petit salon hongkongais) from 2023, the hollow blocks used in Hong Kong demonstrations are arranged into a cosy seating area. Is there fire without smoke? from 2023, on view as an outdoor sculpture at the opening, is also an artistic appropriation of an obstacle erected by demonstrators. The counterpart to this is the Social ladder (2017/2023), with the help of which a barrier erected by the forces of order can be overcome rather effortlessly. Instead of a lion’s skin, Hercules could clothe himself with a flag: L’étendard (2023) is an invented banner that uses the colours of the yellow vests instead of the revolutionary Tricolore. Instead of wielding a club or shooting arrows, the modern Hercules would perhaps throw Molotov cocktails or the paving stones mentioned in the exhibition title. While Encylopaedia protestaris (2023) shows a small librarian’s reference of projectiles collected at demonstrations, Freudenfeuer-Bausatz (2023) merely provides a DIY kit to go. The photo work Banksy in real life from 2018 and Solidarity is key (2023) on the ceiling emphasise that protests can also be non-violent. While Clément Claudius consistently avoids taking a position on the content of the demonstration in this exhibition, the “other” side also appears in the exhibition. Despotic graphology (2023) is an invitation to exhibition visitors to find a pattern in the reproduced signatures of historical rulers who took their people to the streets against them. The work Géomatraque, also created for this exhibition, is a series of neck logos of emergency forces painted after real-life models that serve as coordinative symbols during demonstrations. In keeping with this, remnants of this violence are also exhibited: All Candles Are Beautiful (2021/2023) are collected tear gas cartridges, some of which have been converted into scented candles. Incidentally, anyone who misreads the title of this work would be forgiven. As a regular participant in demonstrations, the artist is naturally a partisan observer, which is also reflected in the second photographic work Salvation generation (2023). The policeman, in a typically ready-for-action pose, does not have a bulletproof vest in front of his chest, but a baby carrier. The relationship between art and politics has always been highly complex: on the one hand, art has frequently been used for political purposes; on the other hand, there are many examples of political activism by artists of all disciplines. Clément Claudius does not stand in this tradition of works by Picasso, Kafka or Verdi, for example – his exhibition remains descriptive, and Hercules is not made into the heroic figurehead of protest here. After all, he has been misused often enough. – Peter Ungeheuer © UTimes 2023 All rights reserved SOCIALS Facebook Instgram Diskurs
SUPERPOSITION
SUPERPOSITION 23.01.2020 – 29.02.2020 with Lucas Buschfeld Edith Kollath Olaf Schirm Sebastian Wolf Curated by Olaf Schirm at DISKURS Berlin The philosopher William von Occam recommended in the Middle Ages to free philosophy from all superfluous things with a razor knife, in essence to pursue the simplest explanation in the sense of coherence. This is a method which is nowadays commonly used when we perceive the “real world” because it makes life much easier and frees us from the need to weigh up the countless possibilities that present themselves at each and every moment. But consequently, this ease carries with it a big disadvantage: According to today’s knowledge in theoretical and experimental physics, the material from which everything originated and originates carries the fundamental property of possibility in itself. The fundament of all is probability and not absolute clarity. We know this from quantum physics research of the past 100 years, due to the groundbreaking thoughts and theories of Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and many others. According to them, by renouncing possibilities, one actually destroys the possibilities if one does not consider them. Take the thought experiment of Nobel Prize winner Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. In the hypothesis a cat is enclosed in a box containing a deadly mechanism, there is a 50% probability the mechanism will be trigged sometime or never and leads to the realization that one does not know whether the cat is alive or not, as long as one does not look inside the box. The cat, in this thought experiment, is in a state of superposition, of being and non-being. In the 1805 famous double-slit experiment this even became and becomes visible, because here light occurs simultaneously as both a particle and a wave and completely contradicts our perception that something can only be one single thing in one solid-state at the same time. Indeed, the observation, the measurement, the “looking” or “perception” destroys the superposition and forms a concrete manifestation. Like a breaking wave, the probability wave collapses and forms the unambiguous reality. The cat is alive! …and there is no separation between the observer and the observed… The destructive power of observation therefore also leads to genesis, to emergence, to the crystallization of safety in the quantum foam of possibilities. Another Nobel Prize winner, nobody less than Albert Einstein himself, could not believe this, as it shook his ingenious space-time construct of the theory of relativity. He asked, “is the moon there when I’m not looking at it?” and later he continued on the subject of “God doesn’t roll a dice!”. We now know, yes, the moon is actually there, because it is constantly “measured” by subatomic and wave interactions and as Niels Bohr replied: “whether God rolls the dice or not, only God decides because he makes the rules”. With the works of the participating artists, the exhibition “Superposition” aims to focus on the aspect of reality formation through observation. The critical perception of the exhibited works leads to the formation of experiences, this is exactly what the works invite us to. In addition to their typical artistic, sculptural, technical structure, the installations have a narrative level that unfolds inside the viewer. This is a core component of the art movement “Science Art”, which can be experienced here, if one is willing to perceive it and, as a consequence, is given the opportunity to discover new realities. Enjoy the journey of your discoveries! Olaf Schirm
Midnight Sun
Midnight Sun 17.11. 2016 – 15.01. 2017 with Jofroi AmaralPeter Vink Curated by Jung Me Chai What is the midnight sun? You might know it without having seeing it. Is it day or is it night? Can we trust our eyes? Only for one day at the poles, in the midnight sun is glowing for 24 hours, misleading the usual perception of time for there is no difference between night and day. The question of seeing is always related to where you position yourself in the space. Navigating freely is almost impossible. We are all, always, conditioned by the world surrounding us. Belgian artist Jofroi Amaral and Dutch artist Peter Vink both deal with detouring our perception of space and of the object that we are looking at. Intervening directly and physically into the gallery space, Vink challenges the limits between architecture and body expression. His site specific installation, which carries the name of the space, Diskurs 2016, is a work about the invisible structures that we don’t always perceive, but that are yet there. Taking as construction lines the actual traces on the façade of Novalisstrasse 7, Vink bring them inside the gallery space, pushing the visitors to physically confront themselves with them. On the other hand, Amaral’s practice plays with our preconceptions of the represented and the representable. Amaral sees painting as an act of exploration and creation, which is not only related to the action of painting itself. The communication passes through the canvas, but moreover despite the canvas; through the object but also beyond the object itself. For this exhibition’s project, Amaral presents three pieces: a painting, a sculptural object and a drawing. These elements, although conceived independently, structure the room asymmetrically, silently interrogating the viewers about their semantic relationship. The exhibition Midnight Sun aims to explore constrictions in movements and constrictions in the process of creating meaning.
Banana Banana 2
BANANA BANANA 2 29.06. – 01.10.2017 at Diskurs Berlin with 9mouth, aaajiao, Catherine Biocca, Cao Yu, Chen Xiao, Dieter Detzner, Ehsan Ul Haq, He Jianping, He Xiangyu, Li Binyuan, Li Zhenhua, Liao Wenfeng, Patrycja German, Holger Endres, Thomas Eller, Melanie Wang, Wu Xuanhua, Xing Gang, Xue Feng, Yuan Gong, Zhang Hui Imagine, that freedom and belief become a life philosophy. When all this becomes an actuality, we move even further away from reality, whether we choose or not, good or bad, succeeding or failing. This is your choice, it is your freedom and your belief. If you choose to believe, you will be inevitably free from fear, hesitation, and indecisiveness, and thus will pass on the responsibility to others. The same applies to one’s religious, political and scientific dependency. If science, religion or politics would be replaced with art or contemporary art, it is equally applicable. People gain freedom through their faith, not from freedom itself. Stell dir vor, dass Freiheit und Glaube zur Lebensphilosophie werden. Wenn all dies Wirklichkeit wird, entfernen wir uns sogar noch weiter von der Wirklichkeit. Ob man etwas wählt, oder nicht, ob gut oder schlecht, Erfolg oder Misserfolg. Du hast die Wahl, es ist auch deine Freiheit und dein Glauben. Wenn du dich entscheidest zu glauben, wirst du unweigerlich von Angst, Zweifel und Unentschlossenheit befreit, so dass die Verantwortung an Andere abgegeben wird. Das Gleiche gilt auch für die Abhängigkeit des Menschen von Religion, Politik und Wissenschaft, wenn diese drei Bereiche mit Kunst, oder zeitgenössischer Kunst ersetzt werden, ist es auch auf sie anwendbar. Die Menschen gewinnen an Freiheit, durch ihren Glauben, aber nicht durch die Freiheit selbst. Li Zhenhua ° Li Zhenhua, Curator is the inaugural curator for new institutions in China, such as K11 Chi Art Space, Shanghai (2013), Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2014), Ginkgo Art Space, Beijing (2015) and A4 Art Museum, Chengdu (2016-2017). Founder of Big Whale, Berlin (2016), Chronus Art Center, Shanghai (2014), A307, Beijing (2014) and Laboratory Art Beijing, Beijing (2006), he has been active in the artistic field since 1996 – his practice mainly concerning curation, art creation, and project management. Since 2010 he has been the nominator for the Summer Academy at the Zentrum Paul Klee Bern (Switzerland), as well as for The Prix Pictet (Switzerland). Li Zhenhua was a member of the international advisory board for the exhibition Digital Revolution at the Barbican Centre in the UK in 2014, received as a member of the international advisory board for Videotage and Symbiotica in 2015. He has edited several artists’ publications, including Yan Lei: What I Like to Do (Documenta, 2012), Hu Jieming: One Hundred Years in One Minute (2010), Feng Mengbo: Journey to the West (2010), and Yang Fudong: Dawn Mist, Separation Faith (2009). A collection of his art reviews has been published under the title Text in 2013.