Blooming Brief
12 + 13 September 2023
Opening hours: 12 September 11am - 6pm / 13 September 11am - 10pm
CargoCult, Mahony Collective, Abrie Fourie, Ori Gersht, Richard Green, Andy Harper, Christian Hellmich, Wolf von Kries, Ines Lechleitner, Catherine Lorent, Peter Klare, Christl Mudrak, Jaro Straub, Tommy Støckel/Paul McDevitt, Luca Vanello, Sinta Werner, Ella Ziegler
Empathie II
13 September Performances: 7pm CargoCult and Kashka, 8pm Hannelore, 9 pm Manfred Peckl
Elastic forces are at work in plants, in blossoms, in blooming and withering. Plants are sedentary beings and cannot approach the world. So, through the beguiling appearance and fragrance of their blossoms, they entice the world to them. In the process, there may be an explosion of colors and forms. Blooming, with its inherent attraction, serves as communication between plants and myriad beings.
The complexity of the (as yet largely disregarded) ‘thinking’ of plants is characterized by the fact they possess a material, rather than a neuronal brain. The flower can be interpreted as the rationality of the plant, the blossom as “reason’s form of existence par excellence” (Emanuele Coccia). The terms ‘knowledge’ and ‘thought’ stretch, become elastic and continue to grow. Plants were the first beings of this world. They collaborated in their own creation and are cosmogonic. For them, existence means world-making and vice versa. All animal life feeds on the gas exchange of these beings. Even we humans are immersed in the atmosphere, penetrate it even as it, with each breath, penetrates us. Breathing, in this sense, becomes a kind of cannibalism: we feed on the gaseous excretions of plants, a life consuming the life of others. The blossom is inextricable from its own transience. The vanitas motif of art history, it is used as a symbol of the impermanence and preciousness of life. Plants are symbolically and politically loaded on many levels. How many people know that the name dahlia obscures the transplantation of the cocoxochitl from Mexico to Europe, and the plant’s subsequent association with a Swede by the name of Dahl? (Rebecca Solnit) Another example: for some time, roses have been associated not only with expressions of love, hope, and sorrow, but also with destruction, and exploitative and life-threatening work practices. The immense significance of plants and their blooming has long been forgotten and repressed. We are at a precarious tipping point, profligately overwhelming the world of plants with the carbon it is expected to absorb.
The exhibition Blooming Brief will deal with several of these aspects. Performances on the theme of empathy and sym-pathy will take place in parallel with the exhibition. Catherine Lorent, Tom Früchtl aka Hannelore, Manfred Peckl, the artist collective CargoCult and the artist Kashka, in cooperation with the Jugendmigrationsdienst Mitte-Wedding, will investigate the theme with young people.
Curated by Sienna Mac Anna, Olivia Reynolds and Julia Wirxel
other AI
11 - 16 July 2023
Aex Valijani, Aleksandr Delev, Alisa Tsybina, Anna Maria Linder, Dongchan Kim, Ella Shields, Hannah-Katharina Chabbani, Irma Mastenbroek, Jacob Broms Engblom, Jakob Sitter Midttun, Leo Elia Jung, Mareike Bode, Morgan Williams, Nelson Ijakaa Imo, Nikolas Brummer, Serena Coelho, Sigourney Pilz, Thomas Fornoff, Till Bödeker
Sculplobe e.V. and independent curator Marc Bredemeier cordially invite you to the exhibition project titled other AI at Lobe Space. This transdisciplinary exhibition project encompasses art, music, discussions, and a workshop. The program is further enhanced with texts, Discord (a digital/interactive communication platform), and a dedicated website.
Developed through a process-oriented and collaborative approach since April, the exhibition explores the realms of nature, culture, and humanity through the contributions of 19 participants.
In the ever-progressing landscape of Web 4.0 is a speculative term that does not have a widely accepted definition. It refers to potential future developments beyond Web 3.0, but its characteristics and concepts are not clearly defined at this time. However, it’s worth noting that the evolution of the web is not linear, technology continues to evolve rapidly, and new paradigms and advancements may emerge in the future that could be labeled as Web 4.0. (a visionary phase where intelligent systems and technologies seamlessly integrate into everyday life, enabling personalized and interconnected experiences) and the upcoming introduction of GPT-4, the successor to GPT-3.5, AI offers fascinating potentials but also significant challenges and notable advancements, including the ability to process both image and text inputs. From 11 to 16 July 2023, the art exhibition will present works by nine young artists employing various media, inviting visitors to reflect upon the multifaceted aspects of these developments.
Drawing parallels to art history, one can recognize similarities between the development of AI and the influence of the Renaissance on other domains such as architecture, literature, philosophy, science, and anthropology. AI expands our horizons of data analysis, Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that enables computers to learn from data and make predictions or decisions without explicit programming. It involves training algorithms on data to recognize patterns and perform tasks, leading to applications like image recognition and recommendation systems. , automation, and opens up new possibilities for innovation. Similarly, AI enables the processing and analysis of large amounts of data, revealing new insights and discoveries in diverse fields. However, it is crucial to acknowledge and address the negative impacts of AI on visual communication, such as image manipulation through Deepfake refers to manipulated or synthesized media content, such as videos, images, or audio, that convincingly and deceptively appear to be real but are actually created or altered using artificial intelligence techniques, specifically deep learning algorithms. Deepfake technology utilizes neural networks to analyze and mimic the facial movements, expressions, or voice of one person and superimpose them onto another person or manipulate existing media to create a false representation. technologies or biased image recognition algorithms. With the continuous development of AI, preserving the ethics and integrity of visual content becomes of paramount importance.
To address these topics, other AI pursues a transdisciplinary, process-oriented, and collaborative approach. This fosters the exchange of knowledge and expertise across disciplinary boundaries, promoting a holistic understanding of complex issues. Through the expanded program, we combine perspectives, theories, and methods, advancing innovative solutions. This approach ensures a comprehensive exploration of the exhibition’s themes that goes beyond the confines of a single discipline.
Furthermore, the exhibition project recognizes the importance of reflecting on technological progress and its societal implications. Similar to dystopian works questioning future societies, the introduction of technology challenges us to raise questions about privacy, ethics, and the complex relationship between humans and machines. In the tradition of Romanticism, where artists and writers delved into the impacts of industrialization on nature and human existence, other AI sheds light on the effects of AI on our continuously updating world.
While we celebrate the achievements of AI, it is crucial to approach its development and application with critical awareness and responsibility. The exhibition project encourages an examination of the ethical implications and societal impacts of AI, particularly in the context of large language models (LLMs). other AI offers a multifaceted exploration of the effects by engaging with their social implications, power structures, and reevaluating the relationship between humans and technology. This provides us with an opportunity to shape a future that employs AI responsibly and ethically.
The exhibition also acknowledges the increasing importance of regulating AI, as expressed, for example, in the European Commission’s planned AI Act. With the growing integration of AI into society, this exhibition project explores topics such as deepfakes, ethics, data privacy, and the necessity of responsible AI regulation.
AI holds enormous potential for nature, culture, and humanity, ranging from addressing environmental issues and promoting sustainable practices to enhancing cultural diversity and medical diagnostics. However, challenges such as energy consumption, biases in cultural applications, ethical concerns related to automated decision-making, and impacts on jobs and the economy need to be carefully considered. Through other AI, visitors are invited to contemplate these aspects and gain a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between AI and our world.
Welcome to other AI.
Please visit www.other-ai.website for more information
Photos: Jacopo La Forgia
a(r)rival
26 - 27 April 2023
Hannah Blumas, Julian Charrière, Marta Dyachenko, Abie Franklin, Richard Green, Andreas Greiner, Daniel Hölzl, Klaus Jörres, Anton Roland Laub, Simon Mullan, Florian Neufeldt, Monty Richthofen, Marie von Heyl, Jonas Wendelin
The exhibition a(r)rival questions individual human sensations associated with the concept of arrival. In the context of the exhibition, the concept of arrival is deliberately blurred. At the same time, the title of the exhibition also alludes to a rivalry of things and states.
An arrival always speaks of a new beginning, as well as of leaving something behind. Thus, there is always a rivalry between place A and place B - a rivalry between the feelings and memories associated with the old and the known, and those directed towards the potential of new beginnings. The exhibition looks at those very tensions that fan out in the in-between of states, places, and spheres: from home to sanctuary, from indoors to outdoors, from the depths of the earth to the heights and back to earth. Finally, in a(r)rival we encounter various materials in different forms, contexts and functions - materials appear as messengers of a new beginning and at the same time as witnesses of the past.
Curated by Daniel Hölzl
August 15th–September 19th 2021
Fadi Aljabour, David Edward Allen, Hannes Brunner, Anton Burdakov, Sunah Choi, Christoph Draeger, Kasia Fudakowski, Ingo Gerken, Lise Harlev, Marie von Heyl, Daniel Hölzl, Christin Kaiser, Shila Khatami, Anton Roland Laub, Antonia Low, Katharina Ludwig, Paul McDevitt, Ulrike Mohr, Christl Mudrak, Victorine Müller, Florian Neufeldt, Olaf Nicolai, Victoria Pidust, Lucy Powell, David Rickard, Fette Sans, Max Schulze, Aiko Shimotsuma, Tommy Støckel, Halveig Villand, Ella Ziegler, Michaela Zimmer
Opening
August 15th 12–10 pm
Opening times
Sat/Sun 12–6 pm
or by appointment sculplobe @ gmail.com
Finissage
September 19th 5.30–9.30 pm
Location
Lobe Block, Böttgerstraße 16, 13357 Berlin
Events
August 15th 12–7 pm
I Have Eaten So Many Diamonds They Are Now Poking Through My Skin (says Anne)
Marie von Heyl & Fette Sans will perform the porosity of bodies and language in a seven hour long conversation in a setting by Kasia Fudakowski.
August 15th 5 pm
Room For A View (Daniel Hölzl with Hannes Brunner)
A performative architectural exercise in porosity as a reminder to the ambivalence of monolithic gestures
September 10th 11–3 pm
Room For A View (Daniel Hölzl with Hannes Brunner)
A performative architectural exercise in porosity
September 19th 6:30 pm
Un-w/hol(e)-y
A reading performance by Katharina Ludwig weaving through the site of Lobe Block in search for an un-w/hol(e)-y, unreliable language of an environment/co-habitation that grows into a narrative choreography. Perhaps there will be props and objects involved.
„The new frontier is your epidermis“ writes Paul B. Preciado in his Art Forum essay Learning From The Virus and thereby points to the fact that the borders and outlines of countries, buildings and yes, bodies, are not set in stone but continuously drawn and redrawn. The permeability of the skin, Preciado seems to suggest, is not merely a biological fact, but also serves as an architectural and geographical me- taphor. Conceiving of bodies, objects, territories and buildings as porous entities, however, poses the question whether the subject/object divide that we have grown so accustomed to is conceptually still feasible. Are there other ways to make sense of the world, conceptually and/or aesthetically as well as socially?
The exhibition PORÖS at Lobe Block picks up on these threads to bring together artworks, performances and interventions under the umbrella term porosity. The outdoor areas of the building become the site for installations and events that metaphorically, aesthetically or conceptually engage with the concepts of porosity and permeability.
PORÖS will be the first public event of sculplobe e.V., a non-profit association founded in 2021 by a group of artists, architects and curators in order to facilitate art projects in and around the building Lobe Block in Berlin. Sculplobe e.V. aims to create a forum for conversations between contemporary global art and the neighbourhood Wedding. Participating artists are encouraged to engage artistically and socially with the local environment.
