12/12/2005
City Gaze
Spots, Berlin
For a period of 18 months, the eleven-storey glazed main facade of Potsdamer Platz 10 will host one of the world's largest media facades. The installation -comissioned by the HVB Immobilien AG and designed by realities: united- comprises a computer controled light matrix of 1,800 fluorescent lamps transforming the facade into a communicative membrane displaying works by internationally renowned artists in changing exhibitions. The first exhibition City Gaze is being curated by Andreas Broeckmann and will feature art projects by Carsten Nicolai, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Jim Campbell and John Dekron.
SPOTS, the media installation at Potsdamer Platz, presents 33 Questions per Minute by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Berlin, Park Kolonnaden at Potsdamer Platz, 12.12.2005:
* Questions from passers-by become part of an interactive work of art
* 33 Questions per Minute by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, from 13 December 2005 to 8 January 2006
What is life? Who am I? Where do we come from, and where do we go? If you’ve ever wanted to ask a deeply personal question on a gigantic media facade, then as from 13 December 2005 you can by taking part in the interactive art project 33 Questions per Minute (33QPM), Relational Architecture 5 by Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Passers-by can type whatever questions are occupying them into a terminal that is installed within viewing distance of the SPOTS light and media facade.
SPOTS is one of the largest light and media installations in the world and is integrated into the facade of Potsdamer Platz 10. As the name suggests, 33QPM will display 33 questions each minute. If no question has been typed in at the terminal, the computer generates the questions itself from a virtually limitless source of sentence fragments, combining human curiosity with purely mechanical, often meaningless strings of words. The software, which Rafael Lozano-Hemmer developed himself, can generate 55 billions questions in German, English and Spanish. It would take 3,000 years to output all the possible question combinations. Lozano-Hemmer: “33QPM is a project that represents mechanical irony. Inexhaustible grammatical algorithms make a romantic and hopeless attempt to ask questions that have never been asked before. The words are combined electronically and form random links between totally disparate levels of experience."
Visitors will be able to access the terminal from 13 December 2005 to 8 January 2006. It is located at the corner of Stresemannstrasse and Potsdamer Platz.
About Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was born in Mexico City in 1967. For a number of years he has been developing large-scale media art projects intended for public spaces. His works have been shown in exhibitions in more than 24 countries and have won numerous international media art awards, including the Ars Electronica Golden Nica in Austria, the BAFTA British Academy Award for Interactive Art in London and Best Installation at the IDMA Awards in Toronto.
City Gaze
The project 33QPM is part of the City Gaze exhibition. From 24 November 2005 to 26 February 2006, this will be presenting a succession of works by internationally renowned artists who engage with the possibility that the city can become an observer of urban life. In addition to Rafael Lozano-Hemmer the contributing artists are realities:united, John deKron, Jim Campbell and Carsten Nicolai. The exhibition’s curator is Dr. Andreas Broeckmann, director of the transmediale, the biggest and most significant festival for art and the creative usage of digital media in Germany. The works are being displayed on SPOTS, one of the world’s largest light and media installations. SPOTS is an initiative of HVB Immobilien AG and was devised by architects Tim and Jan Edler of realities:united. They have previously gained international acclaim with their concept for the BIX media facade on the Kunsthaus Graz in Austria. SPOTS consists of a light matrix of 1,800 fluorescent lamps that are individually controlled by a central computer, installed over a surface area of 1,350 square metres.
Dates for ‘City Gaze’
* 24 November to 11 December 2005: realities:united
* 13 December 2005 to 8 January 2006: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
* 10 January to 1 February 2006: Jim Campbell
* 5 February to 26 February 2006: Carsten Nicolai
transmediale.06 presentations
* 2 February 2006: Jim Campbell
* 3 February 2006: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
* 4 February 2006: realities:united
* 5 February 2006: Carsten Nicolai
Info:
Ina Froehner
Pleon GmbH
Hausvogteiplatz 2 D-10117 Berlin
Fon +49 (0)30 726 139-811
Fax +49 (0)30 726 139-890
Image: Light and media installation SPOTS at Potsdamer Platz by 2005 Bernd Hiepe