ˆtopˆ What’s the point?
First of all the imachinatons are neither a commercial nor an event but a special kind of art project. The imachinations have no discrete message, they create more a web of ideas. So understanding the project is a step by step process that needs a certain time. Watching the imachinations in the place you need several visits to see the development and get a vague idea of the serial character of the project. A better idea of the concept you will get reading the faq page or even surfing the whole project site.
ˆtopˆWhy 100 days?
The project was developed and shown for the first time in the frame program of documenta 11 in Kassel in 2002. Appearing parallel to that world exhibition it was shown for 100 days. Finally 100 days were an excellent time frame linking to the decelerating aspects of the concept.
ˆtopˆWho is the artist?
The German artist Tim Otto Roth is known for his interventions in the public space and his conceptual media reflections as well. For his concepts in the public space he won the International Media Art Award of ZKM Karlsruhe and also the German Light Art Award LUX.US for the provoking concept “Switch Off”. He is mainly interested in “postphotographic” images, especially photogram techniques like x-rays or new digital methods. This is why he often cooperates with leading scientific institution. Tim Otto Roth is born 1974 and studied philosophy, politics, arts and theory of visual communication in Tübingen and Kassel. He lives and works in Oppenau (a small town in Black Forest), Cologne (more...)
ˆtopˆWhich role do play the Imachinations in Roth’s oeuvre?
The Imachinations play a crucial role in the artists oeuvre. As ongoing experiment in the public space and reflection on images as well the project creates steadily new inputs for further projects. The experiences and the scientific contacts made in the context of the Imachinations were fundamental for projects like “I see what I see not” at the Art Façade in Munich.
ˆtopˆWhat does mean an intervention in the public space?
Intervening in public space means first of all to change the perception of a place. There are artists doing this in a very radical way like Christo & Jeanne-Claude. The Imachinations do not intervene so materially, but change the places more in an immaterial way.
ˆtopˆWhat does mean the notion of imachination?
The Imachinations throw light on the relationship between machine, mathematical concepts and the human imagination. The artifical notion fusing the latin words machina and imaginatio symbolizes a new quality of numeric images: At the one hand the code base of numeric images dissolves a static pictorial concept. Images can change and become mobile. At the other hand a new complex relation is created between code and image as two different levels of perception. Not only the final user is involved in this process, but indirectly all the developers of the hard- and software machinery. So numeric images become a performative and highly social product as well (more...).
ˆtopˆWhat are the implications of the use of internet?
As internet based images the Imachinations appear simultaneously in different places. The images keep fugitive, ephemeral and immaterial phenomena. So the Imachinations are a sign for the liberating aspects of the digital age.
ˆtopˆWhat means delocalisation?
If the same image appears simultaneously in different places, the image has no specific place anymore. The Imachinations relate to that dislocating character of web based images. For traditional pictorial concepts it may sound like an affront: Fragmenting an image, creating equally sized packages of those fragments, sending them on different routes and finally recombining them to an entire image. This scenario is no fall back in the ages of iconoclasm, it just describes what the World Wide Web does by the so called internet package routing.
ˆtopˆWhich role does play time in the concept?
Changing its images only once a day, time plays a particular role. The Imachinations can only be understood as a series in time and not as static pictures. Hence, they show the performative character of digital images.
ˆtopˆHow the scaled patterns are created and superposed?
The Imachinations create a simple model to explore the complexity of numeric images. Everyone knows the phenomenon, if one throws a stone into the water and observes, how the waves superpose mutually. Quite a similar superposition of two vertical wave patterns builds the visual base of the Imachinations. One of the wave samples changes per day being varied in the colour and in the amount of scales. (more...)
ˆtopˆWhich role does play Pi – Π?
Step by step the digits behind the decimal point of Pi are used to define the number of scales and the arrangement of colours. Pi, that starts with 3.14, is the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. The irrational number appears quasi random because its infinite number of decimal places have no pattern. Today trillion places are computed! So Pi let fluctuate the Imachinations between a clear mathematical concept and its apparently accidental visual changes – a play between the visible and the invisible behind.
ˆtopˆAre there special criteria for the participating places?
There are always conceptual criteria for a place of appearance. The Imachinations do not appear in every place, for instance they would never be projected on the pyramids.
ˆtopˆWhy the Bibliotheca is a project place?
The abstract circular digital projection in the heart of the metropole reminds by digital means to the old oriental tradition creating patterns. For instance the small stones in mosaics or the knots in the grid of a rug creating a complex imagery often based on simple mathematical rules can be considered as ancestors of the computer pixel. Combining this abstract tradition with new media the Imachinations create a productive irritation and eye catcher in the public space, because today abstract pictures are rarely known in Egypt.
The Norwegian architects Snoetta created a library architecture making a fusion of western architecture and oriental elements hold together by a large ring-shaped wall. The projection of the Imachinations on the triangular wall part of the neighbouring congress building relates to the round architecture of the Library and the smaller planetarium as well. Historically the project links to Klaudios Ptolemaios as one of the first mathematicians, who made a quite exact approach to Pi with 5 digits: 3.14166. Today trillion places are computed!
ˆtopˆHow can the imachinations be classified in the arts?
The Imachinations formally oscillate between painting, light, media and internet art. But the Imachinations also constitute a new type of installation! Often a media installation is a black box in a museum or a gallery that you enter to watch a video or to interact with some computer stuff. After 5 minutes you leave such an installation and that it is. Watching for the first time the Imachinations after 5 minutes almost nothing would have happened for the spectator. You even have to see the projection for several nights to understand better what is going on. This is why the projection in Alexandria faces the Corniche Alexandria’s arterial highway to communicate to the large public of daily passing commuters.
ˆtopˆWhy the cooperations also with scientific institutions?
The project mainly deals about the changes of our notion of image in the digital age. This is why the project relates to the computer image avant-gardes which often can be found in the sciences which deal with the latest imaging technologies.
ˆtopˆHow much cost a presentation?
It depends almost from the presentation form. First of all the high power beamer is the cost intensive element of a large projection work. But if there is no place like on a research station the use of a yet existing tft screen almost needs no high budget. So excluding the artist costs the project expenses vary between 0 and 20.000 €.
ˆtopˆCan I buy the Imachinations?
You can’t buy the Imachinations as fixed material pictures anymore. But there is a special edition related to the Imachinations.
There is also special immaterial imachinations@home edition which brings the Imachinations for 100 days to you at home. If you are interested please contact the artist.
ˆtopˆWho pays for the artworks?
The project is supported by the cooperation partners and further sponsors. But almost the artist and the “immaterial arts fund” pay the biggest part of the project.
ˆtopˆWhat is the reason for the web site?
The Imachination project is like a big puzzle. Each new place of appearance is a new piece in this puzzle. The web site accompanies and documents this development. Furthermore the site provides an interview portal like the “reactive zone”.
ˆtopˆMay we link to this site?
Please feel free to link to this site.
|
in Africa
