Monika Fleischmann, Wolfgang Strauss, Christian A. Bohn: Liquid Views – Rigid Waves

  • ©,

Artist(s):


Title:


    Liquid Views - Rigid Waves

Exhibition:


Creation Year:


    1993/1997

Medium:


    Interactive Installation

Category:


Artist Statement:


    Liquid Views and Rigid Waves tells the story of Narcissus in simulated environments with a combination of computer, video, and sensory inter­faces. Its main purpose is to make visible the communication between the individual person and virtual selves. Touch and movement serve as inter­faces into a spatial experience.

    Liquid Views
    Narcissism in the mirror of society deals with self-reflection and self­-knowledge. In the virtual mirror, view­ers are confronted with their images as reflected in the water of the spring and representations of themselves. As they allow themselves to be seduced and interact with their images on the water mirror, the images disintegrate and are transformed into a simulation until they finally merge into the algorithmic hybridism of the water. Liquid Views is understood, in turn, as a metaphor for the act of being “online;” that is to say, in our “second nature” as “navigators” immersed in the telecommunication world. Over the “high seas” of cyberspace, the identity of each individual is transformed into a flow of variable and interchangeable data, in which viewers are completely free to change or redefine their identi­ties, and all they have to do is alter their own sources of information.

    Rigid Waves
    Rigid Waves transforms the acoustic mirroring of Narcissus and Echo into a visual form. As observers approach a mirror, they are confronted with a mirror image that does not correspond to their normal perception of things. They see themselves as impressions, as bodies with strangely displaced movement sequences and, ultimately, as images in the mirror that smash as soon as they come too close. They are unable to grasp themselves. This is an attempt to see oneself from the outside, to stand side-by-side with oneself and to discover other, “hidden selves.” In this fractured mirror, we find ourselves shattered and splintered. Our selves are liberated and broken down into multiple selves. The presence of space in coordinating one’s own interaction plays a key role in this work. It explores dynamic gestures of different cultures and gender in order to study the concept of inter-faction for global communication.