HD – High Density
11.09. – 17.10.1999
Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst
An exhibition and catalogue project on the densification of space
Sound spaces by Justin Bennett, Oval and sha.™
HD – High Density, an exhibition and catalogue project on the densification of space, is presented by the NGBK in Berlin in cooperation with Freunde Guter Musik Berlin e.V. and Büro 213. It is an interdisciplinary, investigative project with accessible, labyrinthine chip- and city planning structures, soundspaces, video- and computer-installations created by musicians, artists, architects and theorists.
Ever since the concept of High Density was introduced in the 1920s in the fields of city planning and city development, it has been the center of vigorous debate. Density in construction, spatial/visual density and social density all created criteria that continue to be judged differently according to region and continent. Computers, the central medium of the now transpiring Fin de siècle, dominate all other media and have re-defined the concept of high density with the HD logo. In this context high density refers to the processing and storage of data. Increasingly powerful chips with extreme circuit density and high-speed computers allow for the constitution of new spatial concepts that are investigated and presented in this exhibition and catalogue.
To an ever-increasing degree, cities in Europe and the USA are characterized by intelligent security systems at city limits, in office buildings, in streets and on squares. They represent a computing space that – though not visible – is experienced due to limited access. Research and development aim to make the technology that constitutes computing spaces invisible to the human eye. Despite their apparent paradoxical reflex, the interest in and fascination for these spaces with invisible dimensions are particularly strong. The analogy between city maps and microchips serves as the structural principle at the center of HD – High Density. Clearly visible at first glance in visual correspondences, the principle is extended to formal and functional analogies within the relationships between the history of the city and the history of computers – relationships in which the concept of high density plays a leading role. These aspects are examined and represented visually and acoustically by musicians, artists and architects on the background of constructed and computed environments.
High density – like speed – implies a new form of being and lifestyle, but also a new form of space. In this sense it is to be understood as the accompanying metaphor for the interdisciplinary research of this exhibition and catalogue project.
The architecture of the exhibition, conceived by Büro 213, uses the stratified structures of a microchip and an Italian ideal city from the Renaissance in computing the spaces with a 3D modelling program. These spaces are not designed in the classic sense; instead, they arise as a labyrinthine structure from the architecture of computing spaces: mapping, morphing and scaling.
A central part of the exhibition is made up of three sound spaces conceived by Freunde Guter Musik Berlin e.V. The musician and sound artist Justin Bennett from Den Haag, Oval from Berlin and sha.™ from Vienna render the abstract forms of the space accessible to the senses by utilizing advanced technology. They each work in a specific way with electronically generated sounds that can be spatially experienced in real space. Justin Bennett makes reference to concrete sounds recorded in a variety of urban spaces in his acoustic installation Accumulator (HD). Oval (Markus Popp) raises pointed questions related to the prerequisites and structures of electronic music production as well as issues of authorship in his project Szenarioengine. sha.™ works with sounds from the real NGBK space that are loaded into the internet as digital data, reflected by a server and then recovered with the net-specific changes they undergo in his KlangRaumGenerator (SoundSpaceGenerator) summer 99.
Archives on the different concepts of space are established for visitors interested in researching. These archives offer extended and in-depth information material in the form of print and digital media. In this context the artist Andor Carius (New York), whose name is derived from the logical operation and/or, presents a technological densification archive he has been amassing for the last 30 years.
The catalogue asserts the interrelationships between the three spatial concepts – real space, computing space and computed space – in its in-depth texts written from interdisciplinary perspectives. The essays will also touch on the effects of neighboring spatial concepts.
Access to the KlangRaumGenerator summer 99 by sha.™ is found at http://www.HDensity.de/summer. This project is being realized in cooperation with netz_bedingung / net_condition – ZKM Karlsruhe.
Team:
Conception: Ingrid Buschmann, Tom Lamberty, Markus Schell, Dieter Scheyhing, Ute Ziegler
Organisation and coordination: Freunde Guter Musik Berlin e.V. and Büro 213
Catalogue editing: Ingrid Buschmann, Ute Ziegler
Supported by Senatsverwaltung für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur and Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin.
Dieser Post ist auch verfügbar auf: German
