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BERLIN/SEOUL · STOP - THINK
or what Zizek has to do with G
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BERLIN/SEOUL · “just a simple visit”, said Jiwoong Yoon, but a rich one to Berlin. goes by the name of “G” - he took the responsibility to form an output out of the philosophy event “Badiou/Zizek” which took place in PLATOON KUNSTHALLE Seoul. ideas by one of the leading contemporary philosophers Slavoj Zizek, provoked him to go beyond political theory, simplify the message and raise awareness in all areas of a single person’s daily life.
the South Korean multimedia artist and performer is also DJ and curator in PLATOON KUNSTHALLE Seoul where he takes care of the ARTIST LAB. recently he came to Berlin to presume one of his rAW rAW projects entitled “Stop, Think!”.
his live street performance consist of constructing a moving billboard out of leftover woods with an attached graphic message “Stop, Think !”. he took his installation to Alexanderlatz, Brandendburger Tor, Potsdamer Platz and Schlossplatz’.
walking slowly, he gave people enough time to see it, grasp it and interact. “i like the purpose of the event in Seoul which sought after to re-think and ask ourselves about everyday moments of our busy lifestyle” explained “G”. could an artistic intervention performed publicly, evoke the audience to meditate about grounded perspectives of life?
in Berlin people reacted to his performance by smiling, laughing and sometimes with expression of confusion. people accepted the idea and sometimes went to have a talk with G, wondering about what he is showing. “it’s a work which doesn't mean much in one specific sense but the meaning is altered in correspondence with the environment where it exists in”.
R2MP (G's artistic name) performed as a DJ during PLATOON’s weekly members gathering DONNERSTAGSBAR, as he used to animate “deep Thursdays” every week in Seoul. sharp bassy house tunes rocked the place!
photo: StageBrothers / video: PLATOON Culture Squad
Contributed by Deena Abdelwahed
Members involved
JIWOOONG YOON
Artist / Art Curator
Marc Brinkmeier FOSTEN
Photographer
Deena Abdelwahed
Cultural Manager
BERLIN · VISUALISING DATA
PLATOON ARTIST LAB: TOKYO DATA
below you can read a report written by Tokyo Data Collective:
" dear reader,
dive into the world of Tokyo Data Collective, a contemporary artists based in Switzerland, Germany and the UK. how do you combine ecological concerns, volt and amperes, art ,fondue, sound design, and styrofoam? furthermore, what do you do with twelve meters of aluminium, about two and a half kilometers of cables, pacifist opinions on a post-economical crisis world whose answer is sex and war, an old heating system and a cat?
those are the ingredients Tokyo Data Collective is using to built its next interactive mixed-media installation. some answers will be found, some new questions will arise, and everything takes it roots in the artist lab of PLATOON KUNSTHALLE. in any case, the installation – whose name SILLA comes from what you can read on the internet about an Inuit divinity – will be presented the 30th of november 2013.
what is interactivity, what does the Alps, Greenland and Berlin have in common, why is the sky blue, how many tons of trash were thrown away before the end of the world in 2012? moreover, what is the difference between digital and analog, what is the purpose of life, why does the italian coffee taste so good, why is photocopy so expensive and how many hours is spent in one lifetime sweping the floor?
drop by if you have answers or if you want to share a cup of tea, have some issues with bad lighting system or love jazz, make some strange noises with your fingers or if you are colorblind and want to tell us what color is your world!
whatfor can CD still be used, why sushi is good for your health, how irritating but essential can be rain, how many cigarets can be smoked it one minute, why write in english? Additionally, what are dreams made of, how long can you not pee if there is no toilet around, what influence has good mood on your life and finally, what is happiness??
this is Tokyo Data Collective from the artist lab in PLATOON KUSNTHALLE, Berlin."
Alexandre Gaeng is art director and designer, Alexandre Maurer is sound designer, jazz musician, music producer and drummer. Yannick Tinguely is bass player, sound designer, music producer, project manager. together with the developer Christian Raemy, the DIY artist Sam Andreae and the visual artist Louis Gasser, they aim at bringing the audience inside the actual process of creation. they invite all of us to interact with the art-piece and modify its structure on the go, gaining unexpected results and sound-aesthetic effects.
a large array of LED lights, at the center of the contemplative installation, will move via dynamic sensors. it will float and change its shape following instructions coming from the examination of different data statistics - like environmental or demographics analysis. Tokyo Data brings the general public into the art flow, allowing a shift of understanding of the overall meaning and concept of data visualization from abstract to more concrete.
the exposition's capacity will be limited to a certain amount of people in order to retain reactions and offer a full immersive experience. the sculpture modifies and reacts to data while internal associations comes along together with combined sounds and musical textures translating mathematical results into visual shapes and sound messages; each time a new combinations comes to life.
WEDNESDAY 6TH NOVEMBER AT 7:00 PM follow Tokyo Data Collective's LIVE interview at Kluuu. Grab the rare chance to participate to the conversation: ask questions and discuss with the Collective. tune in!
follow TOKYO DATA on facebook.
Contributed by alessandra@platoon.org
SEOUL · Communists Meet Gangnam Style
with philosophers Badiou & Žižek
SEOUL · PLATOON KUNSTHALLE hosted an event of philosophy which discusses about the most urgent contemporary social problems with 12 worldclass philosophers including Slavoj Žižek, Alain Badiou and Wang Hui. read the review by John R. Eperjesi, associate professor of English, Kyung Hee University in Seoul:
in 2003, two students at Konkuk University in Seoul were arrested for engaging in "enemy-benefitting" activity. evidence of the students' transgression was possession of Karl Marx's Capital, Louis Althusser's For Marx and George Katsiaficas' The Imagination of the New Left.
as Katsiaficas notes in his new book, Asia's Unknown Uprisings, "apparently, the students quoted sections of these books in a pamphlet they wrote and distributed it in a neighborhood slated for demolition."
a little over a decade later, on september 27, 2013, one of Althusser's students, the French philosopher Alain Badiou, delivered the keynote address at a conference in Seoul organized around left philosophy, politics and art entitled, "The Žižek/Badiou Event of Philosophy."
Badiou was joined by the Slovenian psychoanalytic philosopher Slavoj Žižek, Chinese language and literature professor Wang Hui and a number of other Korean and international scholars. the conference took place at PLATOON KUNSTHALLE Seoul, a military bunker/art space located in the plastic heart of Gangnam.
the irony of holding an event on communism and Marxism in Gangnam, the zone of gaudy consumerism made famous by Psy, was lost on no one. this irony was compounded by the fact that Gangnam is only 35 miles away from the DMZ and our Cold War neighbors to the north.
read the entire review on Huffingtonpost.
NEW YORK · URBAN WRAPPING
BOSSO FATAKA REVISES STREET ART
"Ampelmännchen" Brooklyn (New York) USA 2013 Photo by JUST
"Ampelmännchen" Brooklyn (New York) USA 2013 Photo by JUST
"Ampelmännchen" Brooklyn (New York) USA 2013 Photo by JUST
"Ampelmännchen" Brooklyn (New York) USA 2013 Photo by JUST
"Mikeyfant" REmake Festival (Berlin) Germany 2013
"Born to Be Wild" Fuchsbau Festival (Hannover) Germany 2013
"Flavor Flav" Beta Haus (Berlin) Germany 2013
"it tastes like plastic" Villa Hasenholz (Leipzig) Germany 2013
they take whatever suitable material they found and unite the pieces together with cling films: they bring to life funny and suggestive characters that seem to come out from a video game or an augmented reality App.
“we always try to realize each installation in an individual way, but of course they are all somehow linked to each other. The concept behind our art is on the one hand the illustration of diverse problems in our society, and on the other hand the demonstration of the simplicity of a creative process. Thereby we’re always using similar materials, but the message of each installation is a different one.”
Bosso Fataka's art, perfectly sat on the line between public art installations and radical thinking, means to entertain and humoristically provoke reflections about environmental issues.
“our message is to use your creative mind to change things which keep you occupied. As an artist in a public area you reach many people and get auditory. By this you can easily provoke people’s attention for problems in your society, or just entertain them.”
covering pretty much all Berlin - during summer and winter - Hamburg and Leipzig, they’ve recently stopped in New York City letting their figures shine under the american sun, while watching the crowd from a Williamsburg’s Rooftop. the photographer Just was there to capture the moment.
“we try to be continuously present in the streets of the world. it’s true, we did a lot in Berlin but there are many places left which needs to be wrapped. when we’re traveling we always have some cling wraps in our bags. waste is present all around the world and inspiration too. next destinations will be France, Albania and of course Berlin.”
we saw examples of their ephemeral works few times here at PLATOON KUNSTHALLE but at REMAKE Festival, which took place in September this year, the match was particularly significative. In fact: their bodily shaped sculptures, deliberately push us to rethink, reflect and rework the world we live in.“
"we’re part of this culture and our daily life is connected to it. we don’t see ourselves as an apostle of sustainability, but we try to open eyes for things like that. sustainability is a famous phrase but not possible in a modern society. every consumption is connected to waste production and the use of cling wrap is our part of this process. self-criticism is the first step of thinking about sustainability."
as also Bosso Fataka suggests: "Make art not war!”
Contributed by alessandra@platoon.org
NEVADA · GOD SAW EVERY THING THAT HE HAD MADE
AND BEHOLD HE LIKED IT
as an artist-in-residence at the BE Performance Festival in Birmingham, Dadara’s thoughts on money have been the source of inspiration for the work of a group of performers. he himself is currently developing the artistic economy analysis into what will become his next project “Like 4 Real”, which has caught the attention of both Huffingtonpost and Time.com.
following “Fools Ark” (2002), “Burning Greymen” (2003), “Checkpoint Dreamyourtopia” (2008), “Exchanghibition Bank” (2011) and the “Transformoney Tree” (2012), “Like 4 Real” will be featured as Dadara’s sixth installation at Burning Man, Nevada.
characteristically positioned in a border sphere, Dadara’s “Like 4 Real” invites you to either take the blue or red pill, leading you to stay in reality or plunge into Likewonderland. the project highlights the alienating gap floating between the online-offline worlds and how in fact the digitalized era is slowly sinking into a state of oblivion. what better location than the wiped slates of Nevada’s dusty desert to frame an installation that seeks to awaken our consciousness and reinstate a forgotten connectedness?
the project is centered around our current like-society, which has turned the gesture of liking into a commodity and even the new gold, according to Dadara. this is clearly referenced in the gold surface of the installation: an enormous Facebook ‘like-hand’ situated on a black platform that forms steps, where the burners will be able to sit and chat. the installation is just the physical object of what is meant to be a spiritual exercise consisting of a ‘Like tribe’ that seeks to reach ‘Enlikement’ through chanting, dancing and drumming.
‘Like 4 Real’ is a manifest representation of a new deity that society worships without really comprehending it, without having gone through a formal baptism. when materialized, the reality we live in and its absurd facets are rendered transparent.
check out some more photos from Dadara’s Exchanghibition Bank at the KUNSTHALLE as well as his talk at Standup Inspiration in Amsterdam!
contributed by Martina Antunovic/ photos from Dadara's archive.
BERLIN · WATER DRAWING
ROBERT SEIDEL: PROJECTION SCULPTURE
recent examples include a pictorial reinterpretation of biological processes in video installations (grapheme, Museum Wiesbaden, 2013), virtual sculptures (vitreous, Target City Lights Minneapolis, 2012) and water projections (advection, Lichtsicht Biennale, 2013). his films have been honoured with several prices like an Honorary Award of KunstFilmBiennale (Cologne, Germany) and the Prize for Best Experimental Film at Ottawa International Animation Festival (Ottawa, Canada).
by layering different structural, spatial and temporal concepts organically he creates a slowly evolving complexity. this multifaceted perspective, a kind of narrational skeleton, is filled by the viewers own memory and creates a seamless blend with the artwork itself. we’ve been captured by the originality of Seidel's works and I was really curious to have a chat with him about his relationship with nature, humans and technology.
Q: how do you manage to create narratives through which viewers connect?
A: first and most obviously, my works are abstract and not representational. but still they are not random, they follow certain rules and change in specific processes that are closely related to nature. so the viewer tries to read these images, first on the level of evolutionary-derived knowledge. this means certain shapes and movements catch our attention, like thousands of years ago, when we were much stronger depending on reading nature’s changes or reacting on emotions of humans and animals.
the second level is our personal memory, the situations and moments we accumulate in our brain. these symbols are often connected to our childhood or turning-points. people sometimes tell me their associations and the stories they develop are highly narrative, highly memorized – triggered by abstract images and sound.
Q: you clearly want to go beyond technology creating organic forms and abstract bodies. do you feel like the technology you are using is an extension of yourself or sometimes you have miscommunication (human-machine) problems?
A: technology is not an extension of my ideas, they are vehicles and tools that shape the artwork on its way into reality. first ideas are in free flow. then I draw sketches, collect things like photos, videos, data and 3d-models. when I have enough of these raw materials technology allows me to sort, blend and merge everything to a continuous cinematic flow. problems can be technological, organizational or economical, so “miscommunication” can happen on all levels and are part of the artistic process.
Q: how did you master your path?
A: first I studied biology for some time, then media design at Bauhaus University Weimar, while working on very commercial 3D animations. working on the vision of another person and streamline everything for the most predictable audience reaction made me sick.
“_grau” was my manifesto to show what is possible to create with a vision beyond the engineered animation cliché, putting art-historic categories like painting, drawing and sculpture into movement.
I was also interested in misusing these digital tools to praise the random element and surprises (no storyboard!). all this ends in a very controlled way in the final phase, which is not accidental or generative at all. from my experimental films I started doing installations, media facades and projection sculptures, so things change constantly and there is no path into the future. it only becomes visible in the past.
Q: tell us a bit about your life in Berlin, what makes it so special that you don't want to move to another city?
A: Berlin is loud, dirty, quite unfriendly and expensive for the money people earn here. also most art institutions have just a minimal financial foundation, so the number of people doing art related to technology is quite small compared to the potential of our time. nevertheless there are people I like to meet and places I’m glad to visit, so there is a lot to explore when not being buried in work. but coming from the small town Jena and finding no rest in Berlin, sooner or later all the noise will make me move…
Q: what's up next? any collaborations?
A: I’m performing at “Field of Vision”, a new Music festival in the Centre for Contemporary Art Torun (Poland) with the “Lutosławski Quartet” and “The Woodwind Quintet of Cracow Philharmonics”.
then different things are revealed soon in detail – an exhibition in Korea and a DVD published by the Center of Visual Music. but the big plan for next year is making a new movie: “_grau” will be 10 years old in 2014!
thank you very much Robert this interview has been much appreciated. we look forward to keeping updated on your future projects!
if you want to find out more about Robert’s artist website here or find him on vimeo.
Contributed by alessandra@platoon.org
BERLIN · REMAKE FESTIVAL
MAKERS SPIRIT IN EVERYDAY LIFE
the opening party with Sacha Vatkovic and his 3D paintings
Plastique Fantastique pneumatic installation and the REMAKE crew in small
the famous 3D Printer
Bosso Fataka installation
Ana Djorevec installation
FabLab Berlin
Earthship Biotecture finished contruction
Trafopop workshop
betahaus education - makerlab
it's fun to remake
Panel on the maker movement with Peter Kirn
Onyx Ashanti presentation
Neues Deutschland - with SAE Institute camera crew - interviews one of the artist.
Workshops in the bubble
from 11th till 15th of September PLATOON KUNSTHALLE Berlin and the surrounding area was taken over by artists, designers, doers and thinkers, who explored and introduced the themes of upcycling, sustainability and alternative economies in everyday life.
REMAKE festival showcased some of the most captivating artists from Berlin and Belgrade, who managed to inspire the festival participants and involve them into various activites. for the first time participants not only learned the theory but worked hands on and practically dirtied their fingers and gave form to their immagination.
Platoon’s team of designers and volunteers created with their own hands 500 posters: spraying over old tools they left different traces making each design unique.
REMAKE Festival was featured on Sugarhigh, Art Parasites, Berlin.de, Il Mitte, Kaltblut, Koxtrok, Milenskaya, Perfekt, Berliner Zeitung, Zitty Berlin, Flux FM, Betahaus, Qiez, Fritzing, Trafopop and Vice Magazine. 32 articles and blog posts and interviews exposed and talked about the Festival both on and offline bringing the maker movement under an international light.
Bosso Fataka set up a huge installation out of reclaimed materials which welcomed the festival participants at the entrance. at the FabLab workshop the visitors learned how to use a 3D printer, laser cutter and how to engrave a phone. Earthship Biotecture crew built a site-specific earthship, with the help of, as they said: “just a sledgehammer, a shovel, a level, and some volunteers” while Betahaus Makerlab team gathered huge number of DIY fans.
the outcome of Uros Pajovic's workshop was a swing made of cardboard, while during TrafoPop workshops LED lamps decorated jackets attracted the crowd attention. Onyx Ashanti’s presentation and performance steared up the attendants for almost two hours due to huge interest. Fritzing workshop introduced Arduino technology, while the Vospertron performance was a spectacular combination of technology and dance.
night time was reserved for great musicians and artists such as Marco Barotti with his DIY pneumatic drum, Mother Perera with a striking DJ set and Simonne Jones with her LED paintings.
in partnership with PLATOON KUNSTHALLE Berlin, REMAKE Festival got a new form, and after two successful years in Belgrade, came to Berlin. it was not a conventional festival, but rather a space for collaborative work and exchange between different DIY makers, players and all festival participants.
Contributed by alessandra.busignani@googlemail.com
BERLIN · PERERA ELSEWHERE
BIZARRE AND BEAUTIFUL
you probably know Sasha as the charismatic singer of Jahcoozi or as DJ Mother Perera blasting some proper bass music in a dark basement. and now it is Perera Elsewhere where she 'cures' her musical addiction, this time in a hauntingly beautiful way. still she never abandons her critical approach touching on topics ranging from the corruption of organized religion, gender discrimination and technological advancements leading to human over-dependance.
on 28th of october will drop the LP Everlast with a fantastic feature by Gonjasufi. the full-lenght album is coming out on Friends of Friends, who's roster includes prolific 22-year-old beatmaker Shlohmo, reknown John Talabot, Mykki Blanco and Salva to name a few.
just recently the legendary producer Prefuse 73 tweeted: "@FoF Music: @pereraelsewhere is pretty much the future, right?" judging by released songs we heard and concerts we saw, there is something substantial behind this statement and not just a gentleman's (PR) gesture!
check it out yourself on the 5th of november at the album release party supported by Robot Koch's live set and DJ sets by Sick Girls, Sarah Farina and shepherd, all accompanied by Hugo Holger Schneider's visuals, who directed the surrealistic video Bizzare as well. and read the recent interview she gave for The Fader.
Contributed by Matej Ficko
Members involved
Sasha Perera
Singer / Song Writer
LONDON · 20 URBAN CREATIVES
AT THE SAATCHI GALLERY
LONDON · to celebrate its 20-year anniversary of self-navigation HUGO BOSS has created a unique project entitled RED NEVER FOLLOWS, celebrating not only its own history but also the single narrative of originality. and the new fairy-tale number occurs once again in the amount of creatives from all over the world that are collaborating with HUGO by creating exclusive artworks for the project.
PLATOON is proud to be involved in the electrifying project and to help HUGO put together an exhibition that counts many of PLATOON members among the 20 creatives featured. the RED NEVER FOLLOWS artworks range from ornate murals and sonic designs to light installations and interactive sensory installations and much more, all gravitating within the field of urban creativity.
the featured artists at RED NEVER FOLLOWS are:
Armin Keplinger (AUT), Barrett & Taylor (GBR), Bart Hess (NED), Daito Manabe (JPN), Elektropastete (GER), Elisa Strozyk (GER), Felix Bonowski (GER), Güvenc Özel (TUR), Iepe Rubingh (NED), Jeongmoon Choi (KOR), Jun Fujiwara (JPN), Marco Barotti & Plastique Fantastique (ITA), Mark Jenkins (USA), Pierre Debusschere (BEL), Pussykrew (POL), Sonice Development (GER), Steffen Seeger (GER), Takahito Irie (JPN), Urbanscreen (GER) and Victor Ash (POR).
a shared love of design and the ability to seize and re-evaluate the materials, objects and structures surrounding us unites the presented artists, still capturing each their own characteristic point of view. as a result, RED NEVER FOLLOWS is in its whole a landscape portraying the philosophy of an engrained impulse to hack into the flow of things and twist them around.
free to the public the exhibition runs from 31st july - 1st september at the Saatchi Gallery. you can find more pictures on facebook.
contributed by Martina Antunovic.
Members involved
Armin Keplinger
3D-Artist
Stefanie Greimel
Media Art Producer
Raffael (Moco) Ziegler
Computational Designer
Felix Bonowski
Artist
Iepe Rubingh
Artist
Marco Canevacci
Architect
Marco Barotti
musician
Mark Jenkins
Artist
Ewelina Aleksandrowicz
Artist
Andrzej Wojtas
Artist
Steffen Seeger
Artist
BERLIN · KYL21 BACK TO THE ROOTS
AND INTO THE FUTURE
BERLIN · "it all began almost exactly four years ago. it was hot, just like today. I had a desire for refreshment and grabbed the nearest Magnum ice cream. only it did not provide the cooling effect I was looking for. is it impossible for ice cream to be empowering, vitalizing, even healthy, I thought?”
yes, it might sound like the beginning of a pastel-coloured 90's commercial with cut-offs, tennis headbands and sketchy moustaches. but actually it is an insight into the initial thoughts of David Marx, designer, founder and CEO of The Science Kitchen, which would then catapult a thorough search for knowledge on how to improve the ice cream industry.
unsatisfied with the existing ice cream supply and its market, ice cream packs in supermarkets infused with 60% air and high amounts of fat and sugar, he decided he wanted to create a product that differentiated from the same basic body other ice creams were built on. this would prove to be a difficult task:
“the main issue, which has been around since the day ice cream was invented about hundred years ago, is that the creation process is texture-oriented. I wanted to focus on ingredients, taste and think recipe-oriented instead, but was confronted with obstacles within the water cell, which others had solved by adding fat, sugar and air."
when frozen, the water cell expands while everything else shrinks, which destroys the cell and displaces the ingredients to the outer layer of the cell. "it is tricky to work with and complicates a healthy end result. but it had to be possible to solve this riddle…” David adds.
thanks to methods from the molecular and avant-garde kitchen, a domain highly influenced by one of the best chefs in the world, Feran Adrià, David dealt with the problem of the crystalline effect by applying liquid nitrogen of 196 minus degrees in the process of freezing. thereby the water cells have no time to expand and additives become unnecessary. David and chef de cuisine, Hannes Rütz, can then proceed to work by deciding themselves what to mix into the bowl and not letting this be governed by much else than their taste buds. this is also guaranteed by the fact that everything is cooked and handmade without machinery.
“if we add sugar, it is birch sugar or coconut blossom syrup or sugar extracted from the coconut blossom. these are high quality products with low calories, fit for diabetics and make splendid seasoning. the difference is that we do not need 30% sugar in the making, but perhaps 5% depending on the type of ice cream – you have to be aware of yoghurt’s sour taste for an example,” David notes.
when choosing the ingredients, David turns to BIO products and Fairtrade, e.g. “Original Beans”, yoghurt from “Lobetal” (a workspace for people with disabilities), fruits from plantations in Belgium and mango purée from India. but the BIO/Fairtrade world is not perfect. “it denies hardworking farmers certificates due to their fruits being ‘too small’, so you cannot always equal fairness with stamps”, David says, which is why he relies even more on personal relationships and micro-scaled purchases.
the resulting BIO, vegan and lactose free KYL21 popsicles, a name inspired by the Swedish spelling of ‘molecule’ (molekyl), look like something that has either landed from Mars or is designed to travel there. a futuristic shape for an ice cream of the future. with a background in product design he wanted to stray away from the typical stainless steel ice forms in the industry and create a visual wow. furthermore, the angular shapes enable air to move in as you work your way from one stage to the other, enhancing the taste intensity of featured ingredients like the etheric oils from mint, thymine and rosemary.
because David and his chefs work after the puritan principle “if it is not possible (yet), we will not do it” (no additives, no artificial flavouring), we will have to wait a little for this fall’s flavor (or fragrance): a pumpkin base with bittersweet chocolate, thymine and orange juice. it sounds like it is worth the wait!
till then, you can drop by the KUNSTHALLE Berlin and see what is in store.
photos: from The Science Kitchen's archive.
contributed by Martina Antunovic
