aus dem werkblock: self-space
Richard Kriesche
aus dem werkblock: self-space, 2022-2023
Evaluation of the collected data of the visitors, identified with a personal number, of the interactive installation "self-space", 2022, created as a result of the exhibition "Richard Kriesche. a solo exhibition : a solo presence", Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Mönchsberg, (26.03. - 02.10.2022). Installation, consisting of 3 panels: Panel 1: Wooden sheet of the reused door (without handle) of the room for the interactive data installation "self-space" of the mentioned exhibition. MDF painted matt black, mounted text made of adhesive letters, matt white; Panel 2: Built-in flat screen, specification: Samsung QB24R-B digital signage display, 24 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixels, with built-in speaker. Video SELF SPACE TURNING POINT shot as a result of the installation "self-space", 2022, with the artist as protagonist, color, sound, 2:57 min, Conception and direction: Richard Kriesche, Video recording and editing: Mohatar Amiri, 2022 according to the specifications of Richard Kriesche, Production Generali Foundation Collection 2022; Panel 3: Representation of all visitors of the installation "self-space", 2022, based on their personalized data tracks, black and white exposure on Ilford RC semi matt on Alu-Dibond; technical implementation: JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft mbH, Graz: DI Herwig Zeiner, DI Dietmar Maurer, Concept: Richard Kriesche; each panel framed in metal frame, angle steel, raw, wax-polished, each 114.3 x 212.1 x 4 cm.
GF0031873.00.0-2023
Artwork text
The pioneering media artist Richard Kriesche’s triptych “self-space” analyzes and recapitulates his 2022 interactive installation of the same title, in which over 4,000 participants were subjected to an invisible datafication process. The visitors singly entered a darkened room and went looking for its content. What they encountered instead was an algorithm that recorded their movement patterns during their search in the space—just like the digital devices that nowadays constantly surveil and analyze our actions. The movement patterns were fed into a computation that yielded individual hexadecimal numbers, which were output to the visitors in an automated process. The triptych “self-space” puts the resulting data collection on display and reflects the layers of meaning involved in the interactive data installation, which went live during the Covid-19 pandemic. The restriction to a single visitor in the room corresponded to the social distancing and isolation practices of the time, while also serving to create an individual physical experience of digital data processing. Kriesche sees the triptych as a statement “manifesting a global social turning point”—a watershed moment precipitated by the advance of digital technologies in all domains of society. It exemplarily unites three planes reflecting aspects of the past, present, and future: the world of material things (embodied by the reused exit door of the “self-space”, an element marking the transition between rooms), the world of media (visualized in the video documentary on the process of datafication), and the digital world (manifested in the massive aggregation of data). (Jürgen Tabor)