New Works in the Media Museum

Didier Demorcy, Isabelle Mauz, Studio Plo in collaboration with Julien Gravelle and Vincianne Despret: »When Wolves Settle: A Panorama«, 2005

The work arose in the context of the exhibition »Making Things Public«, which was shown at ZKM in 2005. It thematizes the media-geared French debate about whether the wolf, which had until the late 1980s no longer played a role in the Alps, had now returned. Whereas the animal protectionists considered the animal’s return an ecological sensation, the local shepherds felt that their existence was threatened. The installation by Didier Demorcy and the sociologist Isabelle Mauz comprises a miniature model of a French alpine valley and a computer-interface system. The funnel-shaped model, which recalls the architectural form of a parliamentary hall, at the bottom flows into the depiction of a mountain village in which the mountain dwellers are holding a demonstration. Visitors can call up the details of the events as well as the accompanying information by means of a touch screen. Little telescopes make it possible to inspect individual areas of the work more closely. Yet no matter how closely you look, there are no wolves to be found in Demorcy’s work.
 

Matthias Gommel: »Rhine Streaming,« 2005

The work offers a live transmission directly into ZKM of the underwater events in the Rhine six kilometers outside of Karlsruhe. »Rhine Streaming« converts the Rhine into a stream of data that flows directly into the exhibition. Video images, underwater sounds, as well as the actions of living creatures in the water can thereby be experienced »live« and produce a direct representation. The data are transmitted from the Rhine station Karlsruhe across a nearly seven-kilometer radio link into ZKM. The project thereby makes a reference to the historical plans of the urban planner Weinbrenner, who attempted to connect the river and the city via canal. How is it possible to give a river a voice? »Rhine Streaming« confronts the Rhine politically, historically, and biologically. What do we see the the Rhine as being? In which contexts and with which instruments is it perceived? How has this image of the river formed and changed over the past two centuries and how has the river itself changed through that?
The art project »Rhine Streaming« by Matthias Gommel was made possible through close cooperation with the LUBW (Landesanstalt für Umwelt, Messungen und Naturschutz Baden-Württemberg) (Federal institute for ecology, surveying and conservation Baden Würrtemberg).
Peter Dittmer: »Amme_5,« 2005 [until October 29, 2006]
»Amme_5« is a machine with artificial intelligence. The public can converse with »Amme_5« via keyboard at six screen sites. Astounding word duels, ingenious verbal spins, sometimes sassy, sometimes cagey talk and counter talk from people and machine, rhetorical blows, poetry, dada, small talk / dirty talk, followed by philosophical profundity. The public has the possibility to provoke Amme and cause it to dispense milk. A bewildering gesture, carried out by a high-tech robot arm that comes to the table of the those communicating and can, perhaps, spill a glass of milk. With his fifth version of Amme, Peter Dittmer carries the conceptually disposed moment of the grotesque to extremes. Amme announces its feelings by filling and emptying »angst glasses,« with strange shower attacks, draining and pumping processes, and through sound and light effects. Amme causes us to seriously ask: What is intelligence? What happens when people and machines fight? How is communication achieved?
Peter Dittmer’s »Die Amme_5« is a Kunsthalle Göppingen production in cooperation with FHTE, IHK Bezirkskammer Göppingen, and numerous companies in the region. works in full length.