Check Out 1/4 | Part of Transmediale and CTM Vorspiel 2017
Installations, Films, Performances & Discussions | 7-10pm, 20 January, 2018
CHECK OUT event series organised by Anja Henckel (Co-Director Import Projects). Over four evenings, happenings will reflect on contemporary authorship and authority. Installations, performances, discussions and a workshop will explore themes and puns such as Platform Capitalism vs. Sharing Economy, Mediation vs. Meditation, Self-Checkout vs. Obsession, Terror vs. Revolution.
Over the course of 4 events during one week 5 artist will eventually join forces to create an immersive CHECK OUT
The first event will start of with the installation ‘Your parcel has been delivered (to your neighbour)’ by Aram Bartholl and installations and films 'Violent Artefacts' by Dani Ploeger & a discussion with the artists, Sophia Graefe (Media Culture Scholar) & Anja Henckel (Co-Director Import Projects) Aram Bartholl (DE), Your parcel has been delivered (to your neighbour), installation and performance
For his ongoing installation Aram Bartholl collects different objects and materials of the contemporary commerce and public space to rearrange them at the exhibition space. The elements refer to radical shifts in markets, rising control and a life under the influence of constantly improved algorithms, startup pressure and ‘bullshit jobs’. Over the period of the exhibition the installation is rearranged and changes in dialogue with the audience.
»In recent years, Internet startup market logic has reached far beyond classic online markets. More and more ‘IRL’ economies are being affected by the ‘disruptive’ force of the new business model from California. With the efficiency of networked software, low-wage outsourced labor, and data delivering customers the only goal is growth. The startup doesn’t need to be profi table. In fact, one of the golden rules is not to make a profit, not to pay tax, and to be much cheaper and smarter than everyone else until competitors go bankrupt.
In the beginning, this ‘game’ was played solely within data-based information business. Google and Facebook led the way and showed us how to make money from user data while giving away products for free. Today, we are witness to slow changes in the cityscape. Streets have been crowded with delivery vans for years. Delivery businesses boomed in the wake of ever-increasing online shopping. Order anything! They’ll deliver it to your neighbour immediately. Instant rental cars, gamified Pokemon crowds, and bicycle food delivery armies followed. Very recently, Berlin’s public space has become crowded with at least 20 different brands of rental bikes. New startups, local and international. All of them have the same old idea: “Rent a bicycle where ever you are!” All of them burn a lot of VC (venture capital) money and bikes increase to possibly become the monopoly in this field. Public space is increasingly inhabited by advertising and corporate models. The colorful bikes scattered all over the city are a very visible sign of the outsourcing of the private life and commercialization of public space.
Your parcel has been delivered (to your neighbour) is a performance and ongoing installation that involves rental bikes being retrieved from public space and placed in the private gallery space. Rental bikes in public usually fall over at some point, or get kicked over by pranksters. Nobody cares. All rental bikes collected are laid out—their quasi-natural status—on the floor of the gallery. A PTZ (pan tilt and zoom) CCTV dome camera, typical for surveillance in public, auto-tracks and records the process. Visitors are invited to become a temporary owner of one of the bikes by renting it.«
Aram Bartholl, 2018 Dani Ploeger (NL), Violent Artefacts, installation and films
Through a collection of three pieces, Dani Ploeger examines ways in which firearms and other means of ‘low-tech’ violence persist amidst contemporary obsessions with data surveillance, cybercrime, and high-tech warfare. An advertising plane flying over historical buildings pulls a banner with the text ‘terror/revolution’; a 16mm film shows the artist in a warzone alongside soldiers who alternatingly fire Kalashnikovs and play with their smart devices; an online order delivery from a shop for ‘Adventure Equipment’ awaits unpacking.
»Since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, digital surveillance and state-of-the-art military technologies have played an increasing role in the perception of warfare and the experience of security for citizens across Europe1. From the introduction of the smart bomb and the stealth fighter jet during the first Gulf War, to the deployment of Predator drones and the exponential spread of CCTV surveillance over the last decade, the perceived role of digital technologies in warfare and domestic security has been on par with the increasing integration of consumer technologies in people’s everyday lives. At the same time, the presence and media representation of firearms in public space in Europe by state organs as well as terrorist factions declined in most places between the mid-1990s and the early 2010s2.
However, in recent years, people’s willingness to rely on high-tech solutions to provide public security has declined in large parts of society, both as a means of ‘just’ warfare abroad (e.g. drones and smart bombs)3 and to adequately protect public space at home (CCTV surveillance, big data analysis)4. Heavily armed police officers and soldiers have returned to the streets of Brussels, Paris and London, while news media have increasingly featured volunteer militias equipped with Soviet-era weapons who are training for – and participating in – conventional war scenarios in Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states5. Meanwhile, consumer electronics have now become integrated in almost all areas of life. Moreover, state-of-the-art computer games feature increasingly realistic representations of armed violence, and consumer-grade VR technologies have been introduced in military training, as well as army recruitment in civilian society6.
This recent development in the role of firearms in digital culture raises several issues. Firstly, the renewed acceptance of firearms as a symbol of power and strength in public space may reinforce traditional concepts of physical strength that are linked to problematic, risk-promoting expressions of masculinity.7 Secondly, the revival of firearms and the coinciding decline in confidence in high-tech security suggests the emergence of new forms of techno-critical sentiments in society. This is both a challenge and an opportunity to develop new approaches in the representation of technologies in relation to violence in the context of education and scholarship, as well as news media. Thirdly, the current willingness among policy makers to deploy armed personnel on the streets may well be counterproductive and lead to increased public anxiety8. The backgrounds and implications of firearm practices in relation to digital culture need to be unpacked in order to facilitate timely, reflective responses to these policies, which presently often seem driven by ‘common-sense’ and impulsive-thought rather than careful analysis.«
Dani Ploeger, 2018
Aram Bartholl’s (DE) public interventions and installations often include surprising physical manifestations of the digital world and have been on display at MoMA, Skulptur Projekte Münster, and Hayward Gallery London. (GB) seeks to absorb her environment’s physical terms, creating site-specific architectural constructions that masquerade as photographic collages. Her work is about the personal experience of these fragmented spaces that generate experiences of dismissal, seduction and denial. Dani Ploeger (NL) combines performance, video, computer programming, and electronics hacking to investigate and subvert techno-consumer culture. Re-purposing, mis-using, and, at times, destroying everyday devices, his work exposes those aspects of digital culture that seem banal and are taken for granted as objects of both physical beauty and political power. Artist and musician Curver Thoroddsen (IS) whose gallery works turn a playful eye on identity, pop culture and society. One half of Ghostigital, his other musical collaborators include Björk, Sigur Ros and more. Sophia Gräfe (DE) is a media culture scholar, assistant curator, and freelance text editor based in Berlin. As an assistant curator she has worked with various media and film festivals, such as the transmediale festival, Werkleitz Festival and Internationale Kurzfi lmtage Oberhausen, as well as with galleries and artist studios. Currently, she acts as research assistant at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
Saturday, 20 Jan, 19.00 CHECK OUT 1/4
Discussion, Installations, films, performances by Aram Bartholl (artist), Sophia Graefe (media culture scholar), Anja Henckel (Co-Director Import Projects) and Dani Ploeger (artist)
Tuesday, 23 Jan, 19.00 CHECK OUT 2/4
Lecture performance ‘Schreckschusswaffe’ (blank gun) by Dani Ploeger
Thursday, 25 Jan, 19.00 CHECK OUT 3/4
Workshop 'Got a few minutes?' by Aram Bartholl
Saturday, 27 Jan, 21.00 - midnight CHECK OUT 4/4
'Frenchkiss with Enya', a performance by Curver Thoroddsen and installation & performance 'Saunatorium' by Alanna Lawley, Installations and films by Aram Bartholl and Dani Ploeger
Over the course of 4 events during one week 5 artist will eventually join forces to create an immersive CHECK OUT
The first event will start of with the installation ‘Your parcel has been delivered (to your neighbour)’ by Aram Bartholl and installations and films 'Violent Artefacts' by Dani Ploeger & a discussion with the artists, Sophia Graefe (Media Culture Scholar) & Anja Henckel (Co-Director Import Projects) Aram Bartholl (DE), Your parcel has been delivered (to your neighbour), installation and performance
For his ongoing installation Aram Bartholl collects different objects and materials of the contemporary commerce and public space to rearrange them at the exhibition space. The elements refer to radical shifts in markets, rising control and a life under the influence of constantly improved algorithms, startup pressure and ‘bullshit jobs’. Over the period of the exhibition the installation is rearranged and changes in dialogue with the audience.
»In recent years, Internet startup market logic has reached far beyond classic online markets. More and more ‘IRL’ economies are being affected by the ‘disruptive’ force of the new business model from California. With the efficiency of networked software, low-wage outsourced labor, and data delivering customers the only goal is growth. The startup doesn’t need to be profi table. In fact, one of the golden rules is not to make a profit, not to pay tax, and to be much cheaper and smarter than everyone else until competitors go bankrupt.
In the beginning, this ‘game’ was played solely within data-based information business. Google and Facebook led the way and showed us how to make money from user data while giving away products for free. Today, we are witness to slow changes in the cityscape. Streets have been crowded with delivery vans for years. Delivery businesses boomed in the wake of ever-increasing online shopping. Order anything! They’ll deliver it to your neighbour immediately. Instant rental cars, gamified Pokemon crowds, and bicycle food delivery armies followed. Very recently, Berlin’s public space has become crowded with at least 20 different brands of rental bikes. New startups, local and international. All of them have the same old idea: “Rent a bicycle where ever you are!” All of them burn a lot of VC (venture capital) money and bikes increase to possibly become the monopoly in this field. Public space is increasingly inhabited by advertising and corporate models. The colorful bikes scattered all over the city are a very visible sign of the outsourcing of the private life and commercialization of public space.
Your parcel has been delivered (to your neighbour) is a performance and ongoing installation that involves rental bikes being retrieved from public space and placed in the private gallery space. Rental bikes in public usually fall over at some point, or get kicked over by pranksters. Nobody cares. All rental bikes collected are laid out—their quasi-natural status—on the floor of the gallery. A PTZ (pan tilt and zoom) CCTV dome camera, typical for surveillance in public, auto-tracks and records the process. Visitors are invited to become a temporary owner of one of the bikes by renting it.«
Aram Bartholl, 2018 Dani Ploeger (NL), Violent Artefacts, installation and films
Through a collection of three pieces, Dani Ploeger examines ways in which firearms and other means of ‘low-tech’ violence persist amidst contemporary obsessions with data surveillance, cybercrime, and high-tech warfare. An advertising plane flying over historical buildings pulls a banner with the text ‘terror/revolution’; a 16mm film shows the artist in a warzone alongside soldiers who alternatingly fire Kalashnikovs and play with their smart devices; an online order delivery from a shop for ‘Adventure Equipment’ awaits unpacking.
»Since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, digital surveillance and state-of-the-art military technologies have played an increasing role in the perception of warfare and the experience of security for citizens across Europe1. From the introduction of the smart bomb and the stealth fighter jet during the first Gulf War, to the deployment of Predator drones and the exponential spread of CCTV surveillance over the last decade, the perceived role of digital technologies in warfare and domestic security has been on par with the increasing integration of consumer technologies in people’s everyday lives. At the same time, the presence and media representation of firearms in public space in Europe by state organs as well as terrorist factions declined in most places between the mid-1990s and the early 2010s2.
However, in recent years, people’s willingness to rely on high-tech solutions to provide public security has declined in large parts of society, both as a means of ‘just’ warfare abroad (e.g. drones and smart bombs)3 and to adequately protect public space at home (CCTV surveillance, big data analysis)4. Heavily armed police officers and soldiers have returned to the streets of Brussels, Paris and London, while news media have increasingly featured volunteer militias equipped with Soviet-era weapons who are training for – and participating in – conventional war scenarios in Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states5. Meanwhile, consumer electronics have now become integrated in almost all areas of life. Moreover, state-of-the-art computer games feature increasingly realistic representations of armed violence, and consumer-grade VR technologies have been introduced in military training, as well as army recruitment in civilian society6.
This recent development in the role of firearms in digital culture raises several issues. Firstly, the renewed acceptance of firearms as a symbol of power and strength in public space may reinforce traditional concepts of physical strength that are linked to problematic, risk-promoting expressions of masculinity.7 Secondly, the revival of firearms and the coinciding decline in confidence in high-tech security suggests the emergence of new forms of techno-critical sentiments in society. This is both a challenge and an opportunity to develop new approaches in the representation of technologies in relation to violence in the context of education and scholarship, as well as news media. Thirdly, the current willingness among policy makers to deploy armed personnel on the streets may well be counterproductive and lead to increased public anxiety8. The backgrounds and implications of firearm practices in relation to digital culture need to be unpacked in order to facilitate timely, reflective responses to these policies, which presently often seem driven by ‘common-sense’ and impulsive-thought rather than careful analysis.«
Dani Ploeger, 2018
1 Kalder, M., 2012. New and Old Wars. Cambridge: Polity Press.
2 Peter Chalk discusses the decline of terrorist factions using firearms, such as RAF and IRA in Chalk, P.,1996. West European Terrorism in the 1990s. In: West European Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism. Palgrave Macmillan, London.
3 Kennedy, G., 2013. Drones: Legitimacy and Anti-Americanism. Parameters, 43(4), pp. 25-28.
4 Briggs, P., Churchill, E., Levine, M., Nicholson, J., Pritchard, G. W., Olivier, P., 2016. Everyday Surveillance. In: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ‘16). New York: ACM.
5 reuters.com, 2017. Eyeing Russia nervously, Poles enrol in volunteer militias. [online] Available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-poland-militias-idUSKBN0MG24I20150320 [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].
6 VISUALISE, 2017. British Army VR recruitment experience. [online] Available at: http://visualise.com/case-study/british-army-vr-recruitment-experience [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017]; Parkin, S., 2015. How VR is training the perfect soldier. [online] Wareable. Available at: https://www.wareable.com/vr/how-vr-is-training-the-perfect-soldier-1757 [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].
7 SEESAC, 2016. Gender and SALW in South East Europe. Belgrade: SEESAC. [online] Available at: http://www.seesac.org/Gender-and-Small-Arms/ [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].
8 Cf. commentary of sociologist Frank Furedi in: Lee, C., 2016. Up in arms over police with guns. [online] BBC News. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-38290297 [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].
ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS:2 Peter Chalk discusses the decline of terrorist factions using firearms, such as RAF and IRA in Chalk, P.,1996. West European Terrorism in the 1990s. In: West European Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism. Palgrave Macmillan, London.
3 Kennedy, G., 2013. Drones: Legitimacy and Anti-Americanism. Parameters, 43(4), pp. 25-28.
4 Briggs, P., Churchill, E., Levine, M., Nicholson, J., Pritchard, G. W., Olivier, P., 2016. Everyday Surveillance. In: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ‘16). New York: ACM.
5 reuters.com, 2017. Eyeing Russia nervously, Poles enrol in volunteer militias. [online] Available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-poland-militias-idUSKBN0MG24I20150320 [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].
6 VISUALISE, 2017. British Army VR recruitment experience. [online] Available at: http://visualise.com/case-study/british-army-vr-recruitment-experience [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017]; Parkin, S., 2015. How VR is training the perfect soldier. [online] Wareable. Available at: https://www.wareable.com/vr/how-vr-is-training-the-perfect-soldier-1757 [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].
7 SEESAC, 2016. Gender and SALW in South East Europe. Belgrade: SEESAC. [online] Available at: http://www.seesac.org/Gender-and-Small-Arms/ [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].
8 Cf. commentary of sociologist Frank Furedi in: Lee, C., 2016. Up in arms over police with guns. [online] BBC News. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-38290297 [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].
Aram Bartholl’s (DE) public interventions and installations often include surprising physical manifestations of the digital world and have been on display at MoMA, Skulptur Projekte Münster, and Hayward Gallery London.
Discussion, Installations, films, performances by Aram Bartholl (artist), Sophia Graefe (media culture scholar), Anja Henckel (Co-Director Import Projects) and Dani Ploeger (artist)
Tuesday, 23 Jan, 19.00 CHECK OUT 2/4
Lecture performance ‘Schreckschusswaffe’ (blank gun) by Dani Ploeger
Thursday, 25 Jan, 19.00 CHECK OUT 3/4
Workshop 'Got a few minutes?' by Aram Bartholl
Saturday, 27 Jan, 21.00 - midnight CHECK OUT 4/4
'Frenchkiss with Enya', a performance by Curver Thoroddsen and installation & performance 'Saunatorium' by Alanna Lawley, Installations and films by Aram Bartholl and Dani Ploeger
