Painter/actionist Hermann Nitsch, one of the most important contemporary artists, is making a guest appearance in Deep Space. All the highpoints of Nitsch’s oeuvre – Viennese actionism, his famous splatter paintings, the Orgiastic Mystery Theater—have triggered heated discussions. At Ars Electronica, the artist—who has otherwise had nothing to do will digital media—will present a few of his works in digitized and highly enlarged format, whereby the high-definition projections reveal structures and details that can’t be seen with the naked eye.

ATTENTION: Seating is limited. Seat reservation tickets will be available at the Ars Electronica Center Infodesk beginning one hour before the performance.

Taking an artistically playful approach to the here & now is the passionate pursuit of Japanese performance art collective Grinder-Man. Their eight-minute-long experience entitled “Mirage” is dedicated to an age-old yearning: the blurring of the past and future and thus the dissolution of the reality to which we’re accustomed.

Into New Dimensions

The vehicle to achieve this is a substitutional reality system including data glasses, headphones and camera provided by the Riken Brain Science Institute. This equipment enables the user to enter undreamt-of dimensions of reality, as they behold two “real” dancers who, for their part, dance with the projection of their previously filmed performance.

Who’s Who?

Now, this alone wouldn’t be all that confusing, but the sophisticated system makes it impossible to distinguish the real protagonists from the virtual ones. “Mirage” invites its audience members to enjoy this loss of control over reality and to reinvent themselves in hyper-reality.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1De55Cl8sqc]

Crew

Artistic Director: Hitoshi Taguchi (Grinder-Man / JP)
Choreography & Dance: Makiko Izu, Taiju Matsumoto (Grinder-Man / JP)
Concept: Naotaka Fujii (Riken / JP)
SR System Design & Development: Sohei Wakisaka (Riken / JP)
SR System Program Support: Yu Okano, Takamitsu Hamajo (Riken / JP), Michihiko Ueno (Tokyo University (JP), Naoto Noguchi (TDU / JP), Seiya Takei (UEC / JP), Jun’ichi Nakano (buffer Renaiss / JP)
Music & Sound Design: evala (port, ATAK / JP)
Lighting Design: Yasuhiro Fujiwara (JP)
Production Crew Chief: Satoru Oyamada (Haletoke Inc. / JP)
Technical Director: Yutaka Endo (Luftzug / JP)

In a scene reminiscent of a drawing class, a human is sketched by 5 robots named Paul. Their bodies are old school desks on which the drawing paper is pinned. Their left arms, bolted on the desks, holding black biros, are only able to draw. The robots, stylised minimal obsessive artists, look alike except for their eyes, either obsolete digital cameras, or webcams. The sounds produced by the robot’s motors create an improvised soundtrack.

A short theatrical event

When the subject arrives he is invited to sit in an armchair, an assistant pins sheets of paper onto the robots and wakes each one up. The sitter only sees the robots actions alternating between observing and sketching. For the spectators the sitter is only one of the six actors in a short theatrical event. The drawing sessions last up to 40 minutes. During the exhibition day after day the drawings progressively cover the wall.

Robotic research

The software driving Paul is based on research into the cognitive-perceptual-motor processes involved when artists draw from life and is implemented by Tresset using research from robotics, computer vision and computational creativity. This work is based on Tresset’s doctoral research conducted at Goldsmiths’ Digital Studio, University of London.