Catalogue > At random

Moving trough the world wide web means being exposed to a variety of content in a high tempo which does not always attract you, but can also seem revolting to you. The resulting emotional state of the user - a feeling of being overwhelmed and a certain unsteadiness - is the starting point of the work “66mio views“. The viewer is sitting inside a room filling installation. Head mounted displays enable him to be part of an immersive VR environment in which he faces irregular shapes and so called “non-player characters“ (NPCs). The shapes are textured with videos from common Image- boards (4chan, 9gag, ...) as well as viral YouTube videos. Their content is diverse and evokes not only positive emotions (e.g. videos of puppies), but also very negative emotions (e.g. so-called gore videos, videos of violence). In a self- developing rhythm of motion, the forms relate to the position of the viewer, move towards him, go through him and move away from him. Various NPCs from 3D-model databases approach the viewer and recite text-sequences from the videos in varying tonalities. This immersive installation understands the technical infrastructure (computercases, cables, ...) as an instrument which designs and shapes the space. It is being expanded with ropes as well as pictures and text fragments from the videos. Stacks of prints show extracts from the videos and thereby display their content transformed and adapted to an analogue medium. The visitors are invited to take these prints with them and transform the content once again by removing it from its original place. Keywords like connectivity/disconnectivity and comprehension/incomprehension as well as thinking about the digital space as an emotional shaping tool led to this installation which connects digital and analogue content in an abstract, fragmented way. (The installation was originally developed for a specific exhibition space in the basement of „Halle 14 - center for contemporary art“ in Leipzig. However, we can set up the installation with regards to any available space, as its dimensions are variable. At least one VR system, ropes and prints in different sizes are fixed.) Yannick Harter, Fabian Lehmann, 2019

Fabian Lehmann (*1988, Castrop-Rauxel, Germany) graduated at University of Applied Sciences, Bielefeld (2015) with degree Bachelor of Arts „Photography and Media“. Since 2016 he is studying „Media Art“ at the „Academy of fine Arts, Leipzig“ in the class „Expanded Cinema“ / Prof. Clemens von Wedemeyer and has studied „Fine Arts“ at „Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design“ in Jerusalem during an exchange semester. His artistic work focus on different communication systems and how digital techniques shapes the humanity and society. He had various exhibitions in Germany and Europe e.g. Hamburger Triennale der Fotografie (Hamburg), Gallery „Kunstpunkt“ (Berlin), Emscherkunst 2016 (Dortmund) Siva Galerija, (Zagreb) UG Halle 14 (Leipzig) Yannick Harter (*1990, Worms, Germany) is a trained productdesigner, who worked in branches like automotive industry and medical cybernetics. Since 2016 he is studying „Media Art“ at the „Academy of fine Arts, Leipzig“ in the class „Installation and Space“ / Prof. Joachim Blank and has studied „Visual Communication“ at „Latvias Art Academy“ in Riga during an exchange semester. His artistic practice oscillates around the intersection between art, science and society. He had various exhibitions in Germany and Europe e.g. Kaiserwerke (Gera), Gallery? „Kunstpunkt“ (Berlin), Obro?ców Stalingradu 17 (Szczecin), D27 (Riga), UG Halle 14 (Leipzig) Yannick Harter participated in several curatorial and educational projects and volunteered as artist assistant e.g. at Kunstverein (Leipzig), Neustadprojekte (Mainz), Latvian Center for Contemporary Art and Survival Kit 10.0 (Riga)