My Interests

The center of my artistic and scientific work is exploring the culturally informed perceptions, stereotypes, contemporary issues, and myths of the so called "common knowledge", and artistically comment on my findings. I investigate the technological simulations of human skills, especially the mutual influence of human self-perception on the human replica and vice versa. My main focus here is on mindfulness and empathy, and on the integration of these fundamental human abilities within the research on artificial "intelligence" and robotics. In my artistic work I aim to design interactive and playful media to allow people to experience their own bodies, their tangibility, their senses, and their entanglement with their environment. Further, I experiment with interactive collages, micro-game design, and animation.
My academic fields are in the Philosophy of Technology, Media Archaeology, Media Theory, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, and Queer Studies.
Currently, I am working as an EDV administrator at the University of Vienna and I have just completed a certificate course as a Data Steward.

Work

Animated Shorts

fragile still 671

animated short  –  fragile
© motionarts 2011

animated short  –  fragile  © motionarts 2011

animated short  –  fragile  © motionarts 2011

animated short  –  fragile  © motionarts 2011

animated short  –  fragile  © motionarts 2011

together with Elisabeth Gschaider


To watch the film please check out vimeo: https://vimeo.com/102920765

Screenings:
Première at Tricky Women Animation Film Festival 2012, Vienna, Austria
One Day Animation Festival 2013 - ASIFA AUSTRIA AWARD / Best Austrian Animation, Vienna, Austria

fragile explores the fragility of people who stand outside the socially constructed gender norms and who have no voice in the binary concepts of society.

The structure of fragile is geared to Paul Auster’s novel City of Glass and is visualized as a simulated stage performance. fragile transfers the split personality of the novel's leading character into the silhouette and the shadow on the adult’s side, both of whom act independently of the adult. The virtual actors illustrate the balance between one’s identity and the – conscious or unconscious, and mostly forced – assimilation to one’s environment. They walk through the streets of New York, framed by skyscrapers, and by the colors of anxiety and despair, until they meet the voiceless child as s/he walks out off the dungeon (like Peter Stillmann junior and later, at some point, Quinn did escape the – same – room that had kept them imprisoned).
The theme of Van Valckenborch’s "Toren van Babel" is visualized in the animation as well: multilingualism in stark contrast to voicelessness.
In the background, a diverse crowd of people recalls the intersexual god in 33 languages reciting Genesis 1/27: "So God created man in His* own image, in the image of God created He* him*; male* and female* created He* them."
The film’s final statement: "Silencing the diversity of nature leaves individuals voiceless and unheard. There are countless identities beyond social norms."

Hommage an die Zirkulation still 5

animated short  –  Hommage an die Zirkulation
© motionarts 2015

animated short  –  Hommage an die Zirkulation  © motionarts 2015

animated short  –  Hommage an die Zirkulation  © motionarts 2015

animated short  –  Hommage an die Zirkulation  © motionarts 2015

animated short  –  Hommage an die Zirkulation  © motionarts 2015


To watch the film please check out vimeo: https://vimeo.com/139572616

Circulation is the flow within a system. Circulation represents transposition and rearrangement. Within spaces of knowledge circulation is the exchange of ideas, it enables communication. Circulation is also found in the airflow and assisted circulation is used in the treatment of acute and chronic advanced heart failure.

Hommage an die Zirkulation (Homage to the Circulation) addresses the current merging of the "foreign" with the familial and advises to exchange ideas of culture and to use communication as tools of assisted prevention against societal stagnancy and political malfunction.

In particular, the projection plays with the movement and the flow, with ruptures within rhythms, changed perspectives as well as with the events occurring behind the fence. The hemp reels and evenly woven hemp-textiles become divided, fragmented and dissolved, and thereby given new meanings.

The animation was designed for a call by Vitrage Virtuel as a projection on two portals of the building Expositur Vordere Zollamtstrasse 3 (University of Applied Arts Vienna), and was chosen to be projected during the winter semester 2015/16.

Incidentally, "Zirkulation" was the title of our closing exhibition and so pays homage to our temporarily shared studio in the Zirkusgasse, Vienna.

layers test still 07

experimental animated short  –  layers
© motionarts 2014

experimental animated short  –  layers  © motionarts 2014

experimental animated short  –  layers  © motionarts 2014

experimental animated short  –  layers > © motionarts 2014

experimental animated short  –  layers  © motionarts 2014

experimental animated short  –  layers  © motionarts 2014

experimental animated short  –  layers  © motionarts 2014

experimental animated short  –  layers  © motionarts 2014


While attending an Arduino workshop week during "The Animation Summer 2014" (a cooperation between Tricky Women and the University of Applied Sciences FH St. Pölten, Austria) the idea for layers developed.

We built an Arduino-Controller for digital single-lens reflex cameras, which was programmed to control several cameras simultaneously.
I was interested in exploring the animation technique pixilation as an expanded animation technique and used this setting to animate myself in front of a green screen with six simultaneously shooting cameras in two takes: in one take I wear black clothes, in the other one I wear white clothes.

Questioning the binary gendered body and suggesting alternative perspectives, I wanted to deindividualise and to delete my "gendered" and visible body parts. I also made my main joints unseen to point out the fragmentedness of bodies. For this, I painted my face green and with green fabric I covered the body parts that are to be erased. In the image post production, I deleted all green pixels and arranged the six layers in one master layer. The effect of the transparent face and body parts and the black clothes on the white background produce the effect that you see in the example stills.

By using different perspectives of one and the same moment as well as the copped body, layers examines the different roles that a person daily performes (performative in the sense of Judith Butler), which society (up to every social bubble you are in) expects of every person. At the same time, the piece refers to sexist violence and to the mental states, these daily experiences trigger. The invisible body parts open up to imagination and new thinking, but accuse equally the binary gender norms, and the abuse through structural, physical, and psychic violence. The missing joints open up to new movements, but refer at the same time to the difficulty to escape the old paths and roles.
At the same time it became a very personal project, exploring my own inner layers of emotion while performing roles and social passing within various norms I am personally confronted with.

The final aesthetics are still in test mode. I did stop working on the project to also rethinking the structural racism and how layers could possibly add to visually address white supremacy and the violence against people of color as well. As the erasure of all green pixels and the black clothes shining through the empty space, the visual apperance could be misread as blackfacing, which absolutely was not my intention at all. With me wearing white and black clothes I intended to gain a maximal contrast, I unfortunately did not consider that with this, skin colors get inscribed. So, there still is a lot of work ahead until this piece may finally come to a final version.

Installation

crossing borders live in Ars Electronica's Deep Space

installation  –  crossing borders
© motionarts 2019

installation  –  crossing borders  © motionarts 2019

together with Vaishali Dhanoa


crossing borders is an intuitive and meditative exploration of inner and outer boundaries created as a Deep Space Performance as part of the "Cooperative Aesthetics"-Series (by Ars Electronica Center and Gerhard Funk).
The piece can be explored by moving around within one's own fingerprint-maze. Every step is mapped as a color with related sound.

Pointing to the crossing of national borders, the fingerprint as biometric identification becomes crucial: The fingerprint in its appearance also recalls the concentric ripples or little waves that emerge on a water's surface if disturbed. Water is the main theme – speaking of migration and flight, in most cases water must be conquered – as well as inner and outer borders. Water is also a representation of the inner emotional state of a person and its expression. As is widley assumed, as we dream of water, we dream of our inner emotional states.

The piece can be explored by one to five people at the same time within a Deep Space environment.

installation dialing politics

installation  –  dialing politics
© motionarts 2016

dialing politics   Image credit: Gebhard Sengmüller, 2016

dialing politics   Image credit: Gebhard Sengmüller, 2016

dialing politics  © motionarts 2016

dialing politics   Image credit: Gebhard Sengmüller, 2016

installation  –  dialing politics  © motionarts 2016

installation  –  dialing politics  © motionarts 2016


To watch the documentation of the installation please check out vimeo: https://vimeo.com/197387807

In dissecting the Cold War’s Space Race dialing politics considers the history, the presence, and the future of national politics regarding the constant global threat of war and the continuing intentions of colonization extended to space.

When dialing a two-digit number on the "Red Telephone" selected excerpts of historical and actual speeches of US and USSR/Russian presidents will be audible.
By dialing a number on the free-standing rotary dial the levitating satellite-speakers are turned on and off and thereby create an adequate, alterable soundscape.

The antiquated "superpower"-politics of maximization is represented and paraphrased through the antiquated red telephone cover and antechamber telephone-table, evoking the myth of the "Red Telephone" on the presidential desks in the White House and in the Kremlin.

installation Medusa2015

installation  –  Medusa2015
© motionarts 2015

Medusa2015  © motionarts 2015

installation  –  Medusa2015  © motionarts 2015


From the moment Medusa's body was resurrected by the French philosopher Hélène Cixous (*1937) through her essay "Le Rire de la Méduse" (1975), she was allowed to be her entire body – not any more reduced to her head and her eyes as it had passed on through ages.
But meanwhile Medusa has entered the century of scientific and technical possibilities: her body becomes fragmented again – the perception of a bodily wholeness was replaced by the focus on functions and the brain.
As the one, who used to get rid of everybody who got in her way by using her own strength, the scientist Medusa now is hindered by marble ceilings.
Pasture-fence steel wire is Medusa’s skeleton. The pasture is a metaphor for existing exclusively as a service for others – the hungry, who want to help themselves and who use and take their place and space within the seemingly free resources. The pasture-fence protects the self, the inner, the (supposed) property, and one’s integrity. It also keeps outside the unwanted.
But there is no power that would keep her electrified. Again, Medusa is overruled by the present and actuality: the fences are dedicated to destruction. Medusa is lying asleep, exhausted, dreaming of a more human world and justice.

Games

Wash Your Hands Challenge

Game  –  Wash Your Hands Challenge
© motionarts 2020

Wash Your Hands Challenge  © motionarts 2020

Wash Your Hands Challenge  © motionarts 2020

Wash Your Hands Challenge  © motionarts 2020

Wash Your Hands Challenge  © motionarts 2020

 Wash Your Hands Challenge  © motionarts 2020

Wash Your Hands Challenge  © motionarts 2020


To watch the walkthrough please check out vimeo: https://vimeo.com/477282034

Micro point & click adventure game WYH Challenge - probably one of the typical creative compensations during Covid19 spring 2020 lockdown...

At the same time as Italian children painted rainbows during spring 2020 and put them into windows as a sign for hope, Turkey officials prohibited children painting rainbows in schools to prevent them from turning gay. Therefore, not immediately obvious, I built in some queer activism as a statement for human solidarity and respect, and against bigotry and right wing hate ideologies and propaganda.

World Tree Adventure Game

Game  –  World Tree Adventure Game
© motionarts 2020

World Tree Adventure Game  © motionarts 2020

World Tree Adventure Game  © motionarts 2020

World Tree Adventure Game  © motionarts 2020


To watch the test and teaser please check out vimeo: https://vimeo.com/477291098

I was learning Unity and programming in C# while Covid19 lockdown in spring 2020: This is my first test of skybox, cameras, lighting and shaders of a planned mythological adventure game, featuring the World Tree and its inhabitants.

Exhibitions

BACK TO THE FUTURE group show, 2016, bb15, Linz, Austria

Interactive installation dialing politics   Image credit: Gebhard Sengmüller, 2016

dialing politics   Image credit: Gebhard Sengmüller, 2016

dialing politics   Image credit: Gebhard Sengmüller, 2016

dialing politics   Image credit: Gebhard Sengmüller, 2016

dialing politics   Image credit: Gebhard Sengmüller, 2016

dialing politics   Image credit: Gebhard Sengmüller, 2016

dialing politics   Image credit: Gebhard Sengmüller, 2016

dialing politics  © motionarts 2016

dialing politics  © motionarts 2016


BACK TO THE FUTURE,25th-30th of Oct. 2016, bb15, Linz/Austria, group show by Interface Cultures' students on media archaeology.

Zirkulation, 2015, Wien, Austria

featuring medusa2015 and Hommage an die Zirkulation.
© motionarts 2015

Hommage an die Zirkulation.  © motionarts 2015

medusa2015.  © motionarts 2015


ZIRKULATION, 25th of Sep. 2015, Gemeinschaftsatelier Zirkusgasse 10, Vienna 2nd district.

Ausstellungstext (german only)

Performance

Performance at Memphis, Linz, 2016

The Red Telephone
Image credit: Memphis, Linz 2016, Memphis 0ff1n0ff

The Red Telephone, Gregor Woschitz.   Image credit: Memphis, Linz 2016

Poster,   credit: IC, University of Art and Design Linz

Interface Culture Musikkapelle Concert, 16th of Jan. 2016, organized by Enrique Tomas at 0ff1n0ff Memphis, Linz.

The Red Telephone was performed together with Gregor Woschitz.
Gregor composed his own "space" ambient soundscape for this performance.

My idea for this piece points to my later realized and extended interactive installation dialing politics. Its topic is the space race history, documented on the basis of found footage (images and USA and Russian presidents’ speeches).

Research

I finalized my masterthesis The Phantasmagoric Dispositif – an Approach to Uncanniness at Kunstuni Linz, Austria, in 2021.
Link to my masterthesis at the Kunstuni Linz e-theses archive


Abstract

The phantasmagoria was an immersive multimedia – and primarily horror – show that developed out of the culture of magic lantern projection. It was especially popular from the end of the eighteenth century until the end of the 1830s.
Theories concerning the production and reception of illusions have been discussed by various philosophers throughout the centuries; these were later supplemented with notions of the uncanny by social scientists, psychologists, and neuroscientists.
The goal of my thesis is to approach the uncanny via a "phantasmagoric dispositif." (I use the French term as it is the form employed by most media theorists.) Here, the phantasmagoric functions as an umbrella term for the totality of the medium, the audio-visual representation, the (human) agency – all of these in their particular chronological and social contexts and in their interplay and reaction. This assembly is loaded with certain meanings bearing an ideological agenda.

In the first and second chapters, I discuss theories of the cinematic/phantasmagoric dispositif, the history of the phantasmagoria (including some predecessors), and a few of the principle notions – philosophical, psychoanalytical, psychological, and media-theoretical – regarding perception and illusion, the uncanny, and the affiliation to uncanny media content by an audience receptive to its effects.

In the third and fourth chapters, the phantasmagoric dispositif is explored as a method of investigation. I analyze the motivations and ideologies of the production dispositif, the modes of reception, and the phantasmagoria’s media techniques based on the theories mentioned above. Finally, I define the constitutive elements of the phantasmagoric dispositif, which serve as an approach to analyzing some contemporary artworks, asking if such a classification as the "phantasmagoric" would be tenable for certain artworks, and if a phantasmagoric dispositif would be viable for approximating the uncanny.

Besides having studied the elements of the phantasmagoria and its media techniques from all angles, I show in my thesis that the dispositif can be perfectly used as a method for shedding light on a multitude of issues concerning the phantasmagoria, and that the uncanny is in fact an immanent element within the phantasmagoric dispositif and this alliance applies also to contemporary "phantasmagoric" exhibition pieces.
These insights (together with a further examination and analysis of the "exhibition dispositif") could be useful for the creation of immersive artworks that would be received by audiences in any number of emotional and physical ways.


Doctoral Thesis

Currently I am finalizing my doctoral thesis that investigates the image of the human, mirrored in its technological simulations, and the mutual mirroring and influences of each narrative, that is, in research, creation, and perception. My main focus is on mindfulness and empathy, and on the integration of these fundamental human abilities within the research on artificial "intelligence" and robotics, as well as on suggestions on non-biased, non-binary, and non-conforming human simulacra. I ask, how a mere holistic perception of humankind would benefit this world. As such, it is a contribution to The Viennese Manifesto for Digital Humanism (May 2019). The planned completion is envisioned for summer 2025.

Published

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