Mona Sarkis was born in Germany in 1963. She studied Theatre Science at Munich University. In 1984 she attended the Painting Class at Art Students League in New York. In 1989 she was assistant stage designer with Edzzard Gralf-Habben and Achim Freyer. In 1990 she worked as assistant director with George Tabori, presently she is at the Institut für Neue Medien.

I come from classical painting. When I started dealing with the theatre, that is the body in light and space, and went on exploring the two-dimensional space, this led to a certain dilemma. Painting started to become too static, too secluded. In 1989 I became interested in video, but even here I missed those completely self-defined worlds possible in painting. So the computer - which I started addressing in late 1989 and early 1990 - did offer me this opportunity.

Two sentences are decisive for the content of 'Käferlein' (Little Beetle): 'Little beetle, go on walking for a while' and 'Lone searchers never trust serene lies'. We have five fingers on each hand, and each sentence is composed of five words. Whenever the viewer hits a key out of the left row of sensor keys, the word 'Käferlein' (little beetle) sounds. If he keeps his finger on the key, the word 'Käfallein' (beetlalone) develops, further pushing leads to 'Alleinkäf' (lonebeet) and so on, to the final word 'Alleinsucher' (Lone searcher). When the viewer pushes all five keys, he may hear the parallel development of one sentence into the others.

On the other side of the monitor, there are five more sensor keys. Each of these triggers only one word, even if kept down. When hit together, these keys lead to the sentence 'Alleinsucher trauen nie Lügen heiter' (Lone searchers never trust serene lies).
Besides the audio part there is also a visual part. At the moment a key is depressed or the audio is triggered, the oscillograms corresponding to each word are visible on the screen.

Technical Background

HW: Amiga 3000
SW: Amos-System, Audio-Master, D-Paint III