photography – Artificial Intelligence

The Virtual Reconstruction of the Synagogue in Linz

Gregor Tatschl — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 14:27:43 +0000

DI René Mathe (AT), Ars Electronica Futurelab (AT)

In the Pogrom Night in November 1938, a mob acting on orders of the Nazi regime broke into the Linz Synagogue—like so many other Jewish houses of worship that night—ransacked it and set it ablaze. All that remained of the synagogue was a burnt-out ruin. In conjunction with the work on his master’s thesis at the Technical University of Vienna, René Mathe created a virtual reconstruction of the Linz Synagogue.

His aim was to enable people today to experience that center of Jewish religious life. Now his work has made it possible for the Ars Electronica Futurelab to produce a 3D visualization that lets visitors to Deep Space 8K take a virtual tour of the Linz Synagogue. The reconstruction is supplemented by high-definition photographs of ceremonial objects—the curtain covering the ark in which Torah scrolls are kept, a pointer used when reading the parchment scroll, and a decorative plaque that adorns it in the ark—as well as a Jewish marriage certificate. All are from the collection of the Jewish Museum of Vienna and were photographed by famed artist Lois Lammerhuber. The photographer Florian Voggeneder from Linz visited the new Linz synagogue and photographed the Bima, the Rimonim, the Shofar and the Toramantel.

Credits

Dr. Danielle Spera (Director of the Jewish Museum Wien), Dr. Anna Mitgutsch (author and board member of the Jewish Community Linz), Gerfried Stocker (Artistic Manager Ars Electronica Linz GmbH), DI René Mathe (architecture graduate, University of Vienna), DI Herbert Peter and Prof. Bob Martens (architects and specialists in virtual reconstruction) and Lois Lammerhuber (photographer) presented the virtual reconstruction of the old Linz Synagogue for the first time at a Deep Space Live special on 15th of November 2016.

Silences (Active Images)

Gregor Tatschl — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 14:19:51 +0000

Lohner Carlson (DE/US)

Lohner Carlson have been pursuing the notion of the Active Image since the late 1980s when their initial collaboration with John Cage inspired them to expand the found object and the notion of silence into the medium of film. As a result, Active Images investigate the nature of photography and the moving image.

The viewer’s “real” time perception collides with filmed “realtime” in an experimental combustion of long-term visual loops with seemingly coincidental and minimalist changes, thereby allowing the temporal and spacial dimension to transform into hypnotic, rhythmic, visual-music structures.

In order to adequately present their digital media work, Lohner Carlson, together with Videri, have developed a hardware-software-content-exhibition platform named Active Image technology, which, for the first time, allows complete digital uniqueness and originality, accountability, transactability, and security of the media artwork.

Aesthetically, images shown on the Active Image digital canvas rival the saturation and tranquility of analog picture or painting quality. In the near future this new presentation form will be available for all media artists. At Ars Electronica 2017 this technology will be shown for the first time, featuring artworks by Lohner Carlson and Arotin & Serghei.

Credits

Lohner Carlson sind Henning Lohner (DE / US), Van Carlson (US) and Max Carlson (US)

Austronomy

Gregor Tatschl — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 11:00:47 +0000

Florian Voggeneder (AT)

Austrian astronaut Franz Viehböck’s lift-off to the MIR space station on October 1st, 1991, was accompanied by a euphoric celebration of this country’s giant leap into the cosmos. 25 years later, Florian Voggeneder boldly goes on a photographic mission to document the implications of this miniature Space Age.

Obscure artifacts and unworldly landscapes, space enthusiasts and research facilities converge in a narrative at the cusp of fiction and folklore that explores the possibility of an Alpine space program. In Deep Space 8K, the artist elaborates on his project’s progress to date and participation in scientific space simulations.