art

Immersion in the arts is often associated with complex, cutting-edge technology. However, this technology-focused view limits our understanding of immersion. Immersion should be seen as the normal state of perception, while non-immersion is a historically and culturally specific mode created by “old media.” 

The aesthetics of contemporary immersion are shaped by digitization and climate breakdown, leading to two main directions: creating simulations or experiences of re-entanglement with the wider world. The idea that the world is in front of us goes against human experience, but was created by a techno-cultural environment, with the central perspective and printing press as key elements. Digitization and climate change challenge this notion and the belief that the world is populated by passive objects.

“Immersion. Between simulation and re-entanglement.” Widok. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture / Widok. Teorie i Praktyki Kultury Wizualnej, no. 38 (2024). https://doi.org/10.36854/widok/2024.38.2872.

Michael Aschauers komplexe Arbeit behandelt gleich zwei grosse Themenkomplexe. Erstens, wie verbinden wir die Lokalität unserer verkörperten Erfahrung, unseres konkreten Alltagserlebens, mit den planetaren Bedingungen, mit denen dieser Alltag durch Feedback-Schlaufen verbunden ist, die immer chaotischer werden? Zweitens, was ist der Charakter des Wissens, das uns KI über die Welt generieren kann?

Google Gemini, 02.2034

Als Google Gemini vor Kurzem das Bild einer „indischen Päpstin“ generierte, war die Aufregung gross. Aber warum eigentlich? Denn generierte Inhalte sind nicht einfach wahr oder falsch, sie sind viel mehr Variationen von Mustern in Daten, zusammengefügt zu etwas, das es so vorher noch nicht gab. Doch wie kommen die Muster zustande? Und wie erzeugen sie einen kritischen Blick auf das visuelle Archiv, aus dem sie entstehen?

I'm very proud to present a collaboration with Vladan Joler & Gordan Savicic. A map of the anthropogenic ecosystem assembled for the Northern Bald Ibis, with the goal of enabling wilderness in the Anthropocene. Check out the audio tours! Feedback welcome.

21 September – 12 October 2019
panke.gallery, Berlin

This exhibition brings together 16 practices through which artists articulate their own forms of (digital) commons. From online archives, to digital tools/infrastructure and educational formats, the projects envision a (post-)digital culture in which notions of collaboration, free access to knowledge, sustainable use of shared resources and data privacy are central.

For the exhibition, artists have developed a SCORE relating to their practice. A SCORE can have different meanings: It can be a general instruction, a working instruction, a performance instruction or an operating instruction. In any case, it is meant to lead to a realization of an intended action and as such is an interface between a human actor and an object/material/machine. And a SCORE can also be linked to a technical HOWTO document, in that it contains information on how to perform a specific task.

This is an edited version of a presentation given at the “TCS Philosophy & Literature Conference 2019” (29 May – 2 June 2019) as part of a panel called “Creating Commons”, with Jeremy Gilbert and Tiziana Terranova. At this panel, my task was to present our research project Creating Commons.