Phantom pain is a phenomenon in which pain is projected onto and perceived in a part of the body that does not exist (e.g. has been amputated). Now, an innovative new interface can convey these sensations or record phantom movements a person feels. The *Phantom Recorder* system projects a cold, damp sensation onto the skin surface, triggering the brain to hallucinate a phantom. As the phantom movement stimulates the peripheral nerves, its activity is captured and recorded by a neural implant and external wireless equipment. When a prosthesis has been fitted to a subject, digital data of the recorded phantom sensation can be transmitted to the implant, allowing the nerves to recreate the sensation of the telescoped phantom hand, the severed foot or the severed arm.

www.revitalcohen.com

Mogens Jacobsens installation is a biological, galvanic battery consisting of several hundred potatoes. When the exhibition starts, the electrical power of the potatoes drives a text censoring software system. As target, Jacobsen chose the last chapter of a highly critical report relating to immigration issues, that was discredited by the Danish government immediately after its publication. As the potatoes begin to dry out, the suppressed words and censored sentences will gradually reappear in the text. This process is not visible in the gallery space, but can only be seen by accessing the system on the internet: http://pom.aec.at

“The Chronograph” engraves the “acoustic moment” onto the object on which it’s mounted. The way it functions resembles the workings of a clock. Every minute, the “hand” advances a couple of degrees, whereby a bur attached to the hand cuts a groove into the object. The depth of the groove depends on the current noise level in the installation space. On busy days, the object’s surface is completely milled away; when things are quiet, it retains its original form

Windrecorder SR-1 (2009)
Leo Peschta (AT)
2.9.-7.9.

Leo Peschta’s “SR-1” is a wind recording & playback device. It registers the wind blowing about its wearer’s head for a few minutes. Later, at any given location, it can play back the “wind atmospheres” that it has committed to memory. SR-1 consists of an aluminum body on which 16 fans, electronic control components and a battery are mounted.

WERP_BOT (2006)
Gordan Savicic (AT/NL), Leo Peschta (AT)
2.9.-7.9.

If WERB_BOT hears the word “Tschik” (an Austrian slang expression for cigarette), the robot shoots a cigarette directly into the smoker’s mouth with its specially designed “catapult-like-apparatus”. No matter what happens, the overwhelming excitement of the moment leaves the smoker relieved and satisfied, his/her coolness factor visibly augmented.

Der Zermesser (2007–2010)
Leo Peschta (AT)
2.9.-7.9.

By changing the length of its sides, this object breaks his own perfect symmetry and can feel the surrounding room. Each of his sides is equipped with a microcontroller, power supply and motors and is capable of determining its own length autonomously. The knowledge of the position and the extension of the individual modules and of the interrelationship among their respective positions enables the entire object to move freely within the space by shifting its center of gravity.

B.R.E.T.T (2008)
Leo Peschta (AT)
2.9.-7.9.

During the opening hours of the exhibition, the artist Leo Peschta walks through the city with a GPS- device, that constantly sends the position of the artist to the robot, which maps this data to the walls of the room. It follows this route by alternately seizing one of its parts against the walls with one of its parts and folding the other one over. Thereby the architecture of the exhibition space gets is thus altered according to the way how the artist uses the city, forcing the visitors to react on to each move the artist makes.

After the cost of energy had made global shipping of raw materials and packaged goods unimaginable, only the rich could afford traditional, massproduced commodities. Synthetic biology enabled us to harness our natural environment for the production of things. Coded into the DNA of a plant, product parts grow within the supporting system of the plant‘s structure. When fully developed, they are stripped like a walnut from its shell or corn from its husk, ready for assembly. Shops have evolved into factory farms as licensed products are grown where sold. Large items take time to grow and are more expensive while small ones are more affordable. The postal service delivers lightweight seed-packets for domestic manufacturers. The product shown here is the Herbicide Sprayer, an essential commodity used to protect delicate engineered horticultural machines from older nature.

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (UK) and Sascha Pohflepp (DE)

www.daisyginsberg.com
www.pohflepp.com