Current Events

material messenger

29. June – 14. September 2025
Group Show, RAUM SCHROTH im Museum Wilhelm Morgner, Soest

English, ‘material’ is both a thing and a quality. The exhibition at RAUM SCHROTH presents international works and artistic concepts that focus on the material itself and explore its elementary nature, characteristics and behaviour.

These reflections include, in particular, possibilities of the material that run counter to customary uses, as well as surprising properties that the material does not usually display. The basic material is extremely diverse, ranging from solid substances that are also used to produce goods, to vegetable and ephemeral elements – the reference to the surrounding space, to change and transience is inextricably linked to the concept of material.

This opens up the broad field of meanings that are gained in the artistic transformation of the material and which in turn interweave it with existential, everyday and social experiences and concepts. material messenger is curated by Elisabeth Sonneck and Juliane Rogge. The exhibition includes works from the Schroth Collection and from invited artists:

Julieta Aranda | Aram Bartholl | Burghard | Angela de la Cruz | Spencer Finch | Abie Franklin & Daniel Hölzl | Jason Gringler | Carla Guagliardi | Vanessa Henn | Iepe | Zhanna Kadyrova | Katja Kottmann | Linda Lach | Jamie North | Anton Quiring | Ulrich Rückriem | Maarit Salolainen | Karin Sander | Nora Schattauer | David Semper | Berndnaut Smilde | Elisabeth Sonneck | Ignacio Uriarte | Christoph Weber | Beat Zoderer

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From Cosmos to Commons: Between Stars and Signals

21. June – 17. August 2025
Group Show, Kunsthaus Hamburg, Hamburg

Participating artists: Aram Bartholl, Zach Blas, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Charles & Ray Eames, Sasha Litvintseva & Beny Wagner, Timo Nasseri, Norbert Pape & Simon Speiser, Trevor Paglen, Katie Paterson, Marie Pietsch, Agnieszka Polska, Jana Schumacher, Hoda Tawakol.

How do we navigate a world in which our actions have a planetary impact? In our post-global era, we cannot see ourselves merely as inhabitants of the Earth. Essentially, we are geological actors whose economic, ecological and political decisions leave profound marks on the globe. From this perspective, the Earth can be viewed as a dynamic system within a much larger cosmic structure.

The group exhibition Between Stars and Signals at the Kunsthaus Hamburg focuses on the bigger picture and spans an arc from humanity’s early understanding of the world and its orientation on the stars all the way to the planetary paradigm and modern technologies such as GPS. The participating artists have engaged in the topic of physical movement through space and time along with its philosophical and social implication. The works on view, spanning video, wall and spatial installations, reflect complex relationships between humans, nature and the cosmos – and make us think. For the question remains whether the digital transformation will lead to a deeper cosmic consciousness or whether it will distance us even further from our immediate experience of the world.

From the Cosmos to the Commons marks the beginning of the five-year programme conceived by City Curator Joanna Warsza. In 2025, it includes exhibitions at the Planetarium Hamburg, Stadtpark, the Kunsthaus Hamburg and a symposium at the Warburg Haus. Since 2024, the project City Curator Hamburg has been hosted by Kunsthaus Hamburg.

Curated by Anna Nowak

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Zuses Früchte

12. June – 10. July 2025
Group Show, Hofgrün, Berlin

Outdoor exhibition in the yard where Konrad Zuse did built his first computer.

with:  Aram Bartholl, Florian Bettsteller, Per Christian Brown, Freda Heyden, Mathias Hornung, Sebastian Kusenberg, Anna Luebben, Linou Meyer, Jason Reizner, Cyrill Tobias, Darko Velazquez

Hofgrün,
Methfesselstr. 10-12
10965 Berlin

Grand Snail Tour

26. September 2024 – 29. August 2025
Group Show, Urbane Künste Ruhr, Xanten Ruhrgebiet

What is the Ruhr area? An exciting metropolitan region centred around the major cities of Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg? Or a collection of scattered towns and villages from Alpen to Xanten? Or both? Does it consist of tranquil river landscapes along the Ruhr, Emscher and Lippe or is it hopelessly damaged by the scars of heavy industry? Ruhrpott, example of transformation, poverty zone – how can art open up, change and enrich this diverse region?

Urbane Künste Ruhr wants to find out and is launching the Grand Snail Tour in autumn, an artistic-performative journey through all 53 cities in the Ruhr region. Because this is an ambitious endeavour and Urbane Künste Ruhr has set itself the goal of getting to know local players, forming bonds and establishing sustainable networks, this is a three-year project.

Kick-off Grand Snail Tour in Xanten
Urbane Künste Ruhr is launching the Grand Snail Tour in autumn, an artistic-performative journey through all 53 cities in the Ruhr area. The kick-off event will take place on 26.9. in Xanten.

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Upcoming Events

Terms and Conditions

6. November 2025 – 3. February 2026
Group Show, Fundacion Telefonica, Madrid

Scroll Panic Repeat

18. – 20. September 2025
Group Show, GOGBOT festival, Enschede

GOGBOT 2025
SCROLL PANIC REPEAT
18-21 september @ ENSCHEDE
festival for art music technology

MINIMALE REVOLTE Festival

23. July 2025
Group Show, Public space, Charlottenburg, Berlin

The festival brings artistic short films into public space – presented in a mobile, seemingly
improvised exhibition object: a transport cart with pneumatic tires, stacked with various boxes,
crates and bags, all secured with colorful tension straps. Through peepholes in these containers,
passersby can watch the films on hidden tablets or smartphones.
The route leads through five locations in the district (Goslaer Platz, Mierendorffplatz,
Österreichpark, Schustehruspark, Lietzenseepark). At each stop, the “mini-museum” stays for
about one hour. The project is accompanied throughout the day by the two artists and curators
Marian Luft and Moritz Frei, who will be present to assist and engage with the audience.

Curated by Marian Luft & Moritz Frei

With:
Iván Argote, Sophia Süßmilch, Björn Melhus, Hansol Kim, Barış Çavuşoğlu, Lorna Mills, Andrew Birk, Peng Li

Public Visions

14. – 26. July 2025
Group Show, BcmA, Berlin

This exhibition brings together models by artists whose works have been realized in public spaces across the world. These small-scale forms are not mere sketches; they were once proposals, prototypes, and poetic blueprints — early traces now translated into permanent works in the city.

with: Yasmin Alt, Aram Barthol, Jessica Buhlman, Moritz Frei, Gfeller Hellsgard, Andrea Pichl, Alona Rodeh, Andrea Zaumseil, Joshua Zielinski

curated by: Jay Gard

Recent Events

Chronically Online

25. June 2025
Talk, Online, Internet

Chronically Online – imagining an internet utopia

Chronically Online is a virtual residency for emerging artists who are deeply immersed in the digital world and explore themes related to the internet and social media. Participants will develop a concept into a presentable state or further develop an existing artwork for it to be exhibited at NPAK in Yerevan, Armenia.

Concept, realization and curation by Kimia Ghetmiri
Realization and curation by Namor Votilav
Institutional organizer: NPAK
Supported by HK-Art Gallery and Verein zur Förderung des Instituts für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte e.V.

 

Echokammer

20. – 22. June 2025
Group Show, Fasskeller, Berlin

mit: Aram Bartholl, Hannah Hallermann, Verena Issel, Anne Mundo, Finja Sander, Moritz Stumm / Stefan Neuberger,Philip Topolovac, Viron Erol Vert
kuratiert von Dirk Teschner

Der Ursprung des Begriffs Echokammer findet sich in der analogen Tontechnik als architektonischer Bestandteil eines Tonstudios und dient der Erzeugung oder Verstärkung des Halls. Ein starker Hall (Nachhall) entsteht mit acht oder mehr Sekunden in Kirchen. Echo ist ein verstärkter Nachhall mit darüber hinausgehenden Zeiten.

Außerhalb von Ton und Hall verweist der Begriff Echokammer auf einen Raum, in dem Aussagen verstärkt und Störgeräusche, etwa anders lautende Meinungen, geschluckt werden. Der Großteil der Menschen neigt dazu, sich mit Gleichgesinnten zu umgeben, um sich gegenseitig in einem geschlossenen Raum in der eigenen Position zu verstärken. In einer Echokammer rezipieren Mediennutzer hauptsächlich Informationen, die ihre eigenen Ansichten unterstützen. Mit Argumenten, die ihre Meinung in Frage stellen, setzen sie sich dagegen kaum auseinander. Dadurch entstehen geschlossene Netzwerke. Die Folge ist eine Verschärfung der politischen Debatte, ohne Hall ins fremde Tal. Die Suche nach einem gemeinsamen Klang kann aber nur außerhalb der engen Kammern gelingen.

Loops Series

22. May 2025
Talk, New Practice in Art and Technology, MA Design & Computation TU Berlin, Berlin

Loops is the public event series of New Practice in cooperation with the Berlin University Alliance exploring current questions facing our society at the intersection of art, science and technology in a unique discursive format. Afterwards, the Bar provides a space for exchange between guests, researchers, students and the public.

This session welcomes Aram Bartholl, a seminal voice in contemporary media art whose work interrogates the blurred threshold between digital systems and physical life. Merging conceptual art, hacker culture, and urban intervention, Bartholl’s installations and performances expose the hidden infrastructures of the internet while playfully reanimating digital symbols into everyday public space.

Jahrestagung Intervenierende Künste

9. – 10. May 2025
Talk, Hau 2, Berlin

Annual Conference 2025 | Digital Interventions. Bodies, Infrastructures, Politics
May 09, 2025 – May 10, 2025

Being online or not, there is no outside of “the digital”. The digital is always already inside us and dispersed throughout our everyday environments. Our bodies, infrastructures and politics are fundamentally intertwined with digital technologies and practices. The conference Digital Interventions investigates the potential of artistic practices that aim at either creating and safeguarding emancipatory spaces of the digital or challenging and countering the many forms of digital surveillance, exploitation and repression. Looking at the interstices between art, activism and hacking, the concrete materiality and embodied nature of the digital is analyzed as both the site and the means of digital interventions.
The term “digital interventions” itself is wrapped in fundamental and irresolvable contradictions. The digital sphere is a space of refuge and resistance as anonymity and privacy of communication provide shelter from oppressive violence. And yet, at the same time, the digital sphere is subject to massive surveillance, trolling and disinformation that capture and undermine political expression. With social media participation governed by the attention economy, the internet structured by platform capitalism, and political discourse undermined by algorithms – what are the practices and where are the breaches for artists and activists to intervene and challenge these developments? How can complicity be turned into criticality?
Focusing on bodies, infrastructures and politics we follow the hypothesis that it is a core task of the arts to make visible, critique and disentangle dysfunctional processes, false categories and ideological reductions as well as the complicity of platforms and online services with state power and the military-industrial complex.

It is organized by the working group “Digital Activism” in cooperation with HAU Hebbel am Ufer.

Programm:

Freitag, 9. Mai 2025
HAU 2
18:00 – 18.30 Begrüßung/Einführung
Sarah Reimann (HAU Hebbel am Ufer)
Karin Gludovatz (Sprecherin SFB 1512)
Simon Teune und Iryna Kovalenko (Tagungsorganisation SFB 1512)

18:30 – 19:45 Keynote
Aria Dean: Labor, Art, and the Vernacular Aesthetic Online
Introduction: Brigitte WeingartWechsel ins HAU 3

21:00 – 21:45 Performance
Claudix Vanesix: Non-Fuckable Tokens (NFTs)
21:45 – 22:30 Artist Talk mit Claudix VanesixFür den Besuch der Abendveranstaltung von Claudix Vanesix: Non-Fuckable Tokens (NFTs) ist der Kauf einer Eintrittskarte erforderlich.

Samstag, 10. Mai 2025
HAU 209:30 – 10.00 Einführung
Florian Schlittgen und Naomi Boyce (Tagungsorganisation SFB 1512)10:00 – 11:00 Keynote
Brigitte Weingart: The (Micro-)Politics of Meme Culture
Introduction: Matthias Warstat

11:00 – 11:15 Pause

11:15 – 12:30 Roundtable
Aram Bartholl, Jean Peters und Şirin Fulya Erensoy: Art Challenging Digital Repression
Facilitation: Simon Teune

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch Break and Workshop
Kill Your Phone mit Aram Bartholl (Workshop 1) ODER Shrink Your Files mit Matthias Grotkopp (Workshop 2)14:00 – 15:15 Roundtable
Pekka Kallioniemi und Muriel Fischer: Desinformation (and) War
Facilitation: Florian Schlittgen und Iryna Kovalenko

15:15 – 15:45 Pause

15:45 – 16:45 Lecture Performance
Azadeh Ganjeh: Not a Body for Burial
Introduction: Matthias Grotkopp16:45 – 17:00 Pause

17:00 – 18:00 Keynote
Joana Moll: Follow the Body: Materiality and Resistance in the Age of Data Extraction
Introduction: Matthias Grotkopp18:00 – 19:00 Abschlussdiskussion
Facilitation: Margarita Tsomou19:00 – 20:30 Pause (Abendessen nicht inklusive)

 

Blog Archive for Tag: howto

Your Prof Application

April 17, 2023

Dos & Don’ts for your application in art & design, 

Your professor hearing / interview situation: 

This is a total random and uncomplete list of the top of my head from personal experience in these situations over the past 10 years, (from both ends of the table) There is much more to say about this of course, but here is a start to avoid the most classic mistakes. Also disclaimer, in other disciplines total different rules may apply…. and all of this my private opinion. Aram 2021

Preparations

  • Know the school in detail! Study their website, their programs, the people teaching there. This will make a good impression when you can relate to this knowledge in the conversation.

  • Also make sure that you know who is running the workshops that are relevant to your field. Those workshop leaders have a high chance to be in your selection committee as well.

  • If you still have questions calling the school or a professor who is in the selection committee might be beneficial.

  • Know the address of the school and come early. It gives you time to look at the campus. I was in interviews where the applicant took a taxi that brought them to the wrong campus.

  • Normal but crucial: Check all your hardware, cables, adapters etc. Make sure the presentation really works, videos play, sound etc. Test your presentation in a two monitor setup.

  • In case it is a remote presentation  (Zoom), make 100% sure you have a top internet connection. Use an ethernet cable not the kitchen wifi. Dont have people walk in your room interrupt you.

  • Some committee members will right away search on google for you, not paying attention to the exquisit PDF you crafted. what and where will they find? it makes sense to have a website. (always! 😉



Portfolio

  • The traditional portfolio has an Anschreiben, a CV with teaching experience, exhibitions, publications, things you did in the self organisation of other universities, people you worked with can also be added.

  • One part should talk about the way you teach and how you imagine the teaching at the school you are applying at. Universities are always interested with whom you might collaborate.

  • If it’s a digital application then a horizontal screen optimized portfolio makes the most sense.

  • If you are not a graphic designer yourself it can be beneficial to ask one to support you with your portfolio but try not to over do it.

  • In case you re not getting invited for a hearing+interview within 3-6 months after the deadline of the application, it is very likely you are not selected for the 2nd round. It will take another 12months or so till you get a rejection notice. the whole process needs to be finished before they can let you know, german burocracy.



Hearing / lecture situation

Normally this will take 30 to 45 minutes. You will give a lecture in front of the hearing commitee and students from the school (“hochschulöffentlich”). After your presentation their will be 15 minutes for q&a.

  • Come early and check if your laptop works with the projector. It is good to have some kind of backup (usb stick with the keynote file ect.)

  • Don‘t read from notes!! Freely spoken lecture for a professor job is mandatory! It can be K.O. reason later.

  • Check the time. You need to keep track of the time yourself. (maybe you need to switch to other content you were asked to at some point) Make sure to stay in the asked time frame.

  • Yes, be self confident, show your works but don‘t bragg too hard about it. Your are not talking to a customer, gallerist or collector etc.

  • Important! Also show student works, not just your own work. They know already your work is great, but they will judge you also on your students results. When showing student work, be very precise with the attribution! (Who, when, where, what) (I would say it also depends on how applied the school is. The more applied it is then show more student work and how you want to structure the course. The more artistic the school is the more talk about your artistic vision/portfolio ect)

  •  ….

Interview situation with Berufungskommission

After the hearing there will be a more private q&a with the application commitee. Normally this will happen in a different room then the lecture.

  • Yes, you wrote a long application with all your info and CV etc but not everyone in the room (10-15 people) has read that or already forgot details. Assume they don‘t actually know you.

  • Classic tip, but here again. Unless you re asked to, don‘t talk about your weaknesses, things you are missing in your qualification or in your education. (they don‘t know, they already forgot your CV)

  • Besides individual questions these are the most common, sort of default questions for a professor hearing in Germany you can expect:
  • Why do you think you fit this position? (classic, always, everywhere)


  • What would you teach next semester in your class? What topics? How would it look like? Who would you invite? Etc.

  • This is a full time position! Aren’t you afraid this position will throw over your art/design career? How will you handle that?
    Besides teaching, what are you planning to research? What is your research field?

  • What ist your vision for your class/program? what do you need in terms of equipment/space?

  • Are you interested in interdisciplinary collaborations? Who could be a partner? (In school, city, world wide)

  • Are you willing to participate in akademische Selbstverwaltung/ commitee work? Do you have experience?

  • Will you move to the city? (they usually want that of course) Just answer with yes, you can always change your mind later 😉

  • From when on are you available? (obligations, other contracts?)

  • What are your questions? They will ask you that. What do you want to know?

  • Questions like: “You just got a kid. How will you be able to handle the work load?” are very unethical but they get asked sometimes. You should think about how to answer them in a polite way and make clear that this is not an appropriate question. Every commitee has a “Gleichstellungsbeauftragte(r)” a person for diversity and equal rights. They should intervene in such cases

  • ….

Some background info 

  • Often the Berufungskommission doesn’t know what they want or have internally very different ideas who to employ.

  • Also, they want everything. You need to be international but need to have local connections. You have to have experience in teaching but als be great in research. Should be super famous but that could also be a problem (depending on school) and it goes on like this. It s impossible to fit it all.

  • It is important to understand that that they will judge you not only for your expertise but they also wonder “do i want to work with this person in commitee meetings next couple decades?”

  • Not everyone in the Kommission is an expert in your field. Sometimes they have weird ideas.

  • These Kommissions can be very erratic and come to conclusions which are hard to follow (politics)

  • If you get invited but not actually fit the requested profile, meaning you re ‘fachfremd’ it is not very likely for you to get the position. They just wanted to please themselves with “Oh look, we invited such a diverse crowd”

  • The whole process for new positions in germany takes unfortunately super long most of the times. This means you had your interview but don’t hear back from them for months or even years. They can only let you know you ve been rejeted once the position is confirmed and a contract has been signed etc.

Fun fact!

You don t need to wear a suit jacket (sakko) to be taken serious (unless you are wearing those for real)

Dont give up! try again and again!

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How to share a UCLA all day parking ticket

May 17, 2016

ucla-sharing-parking-ticket-how-to-3
How to share a 12,-$ UCLA parking ticket:

  1. Get your 12,- $ all day visitor parking ticket .
  2. Leave it in the car as long as you park at UCLA.
  3. When you leave pass it on!
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POST HACK or How To Send A Letter For Free

October 27, 2015

how-to-send-a-letter-for-free-1
POST HACK or How To Send A Letter For Free:
A letter is a message written with a pen on a piece of paper (dead tree) which gets delivered in its physical original form[!!] to the recipients physical home address (house in a city i.e.). Wow, pretty cool concept, no?

  1. Materials: Paper (blank paper is ususally almost impossible to find but if you’re lucky there might be some sheets left in a printer near by), Pen (just ask your friend or cubical neighbor for a pen to borrow. I recommend to keep it after writing the letter, you might need it again later…)
  2. Write a letter (ask your friend for a FB like or something…) and fold the paper to an envelope (see video)
  3. Adress!: Now the important part! On the envelope swapp the names of sender and recipient!  put the real recipient in the field of the sender and make up a non existing address for the official recipient field.
  4. NO STAMP!!  Send it off and wait for the letter  to ‘return’ to the ‘sender’.

How does it work? The postal service will try to deliver the letter to the recipients home. Due to wrong address it will  fail and the letter will ‘go back’ to ‘the sender’ which is the real recipient. In my first try below I just swapped sender and receiver which led to a visit at the post office in Berlin where I had to reject my own letter to make it ‘go back’ to ‘the sender’ in Berlin.

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On Tuesday October 20th after class I posted the letter at a letter box (funny metal container in public, different colors depending on the country you re in) in Kassel
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Since I put my real address as recipient the Deutsche Post did send me a note (another piece of paper!)  to my Berlin address to let me know they have a letter for me. They also announced it’s gonna cost extra money because the sender was so stupid to put no stamp.
how-to-send-a-letter-for-free-4
So I went to the Post office on Torstrasse in Berlin and told the clerk that I don t know the sender and that I m not gonna pay 62 cents + 51 cents fine for this strange piece of paper. No problem she said and filed it away…
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Finally!! Yesterday on Sunday (prolly on Saturday, five days later) the letter arrived at Constants place in Berlin. Thanks for the tweet! 🙂 https://twitter.com/constantdull/status/657978567381397504  Love it! What a beautiful envelope with all these extra notes and stamps on it.
 

How to make a POV headband for your phone

February 11, 2015

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You always wanted to shoot hands free Point Of View video but there is no Google Glass or a GoPro around? Here is how you can make a simple POV headband to shoot video from your forehead with your phone!  “Yes, I am actually filming you!”
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1. Materials & tools: Sticky velcro, headband, scissors, needle and thread.
how-to-headband-phone-2
2. Stick the sturdy side of the velcro to your phone.
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3. Any headband, winter or sports stlyle should be fine.
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4. Stick the soft side of the velcro to the headband. For safety do a few stiches on the four corners.
how-to-headband-phone-5
5. Stick the phone to the headband.
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6. Done! Make a lot of them! Shoot POV video together with your friends!
Aram Bartholl: Point Of View at Babycastles (FB), NYC
Feb 20. – April 10, 2015, Preview Feb 19, 6:00 pm (RSVP)
Workshop on opening night: Build your own POV head band for your phone!


Point Of Vision video shooting experiments with Atlantic Center of the Arts residents: Bonnie Ebner, Sally Hill, Maja Kalogera, Katie Loughmiller, Jane Remick, Tom Smith, Chase Starr, Merav Tzur at BayBar New Smyrna Beach, Oct 2014
THX everyone!!! :))
See also KATSU Mumble Cam™ for super quick & dirty POV video shooting!

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How to make a light bulb to AC socket adapter

July 30, 2012


(since you can t buy these in EU … w/ @daviddarts at Offline Filesharing workshop at Baltan labs, Eindhoven NL)
 

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How To Avoid Facial Recognition

May 15, 2012

or ‘YOU GOTTA FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PAAARTY (ANONYMOUSLY!!)

How To Avoid Facial Recognition from Aram Bartholl on Vimeo.

This is not a hoax! It really works! But you ll need some extra training for your neck muscles 😉 Don’t be worried about party pictures any more. Just keep your head tilted when ever a friend pulls a camera or you travel to the UK. You’ll be safe! In case you are not an expert in software like Kyle’s ofxFaceTracker you can also test this just with your phone or camera. Facial recognition is default nowadays (especially on all the Faceboogles….)!!


by Kyle McDonald & Aram Bartholl
Berlin 2012
first posted on fffff.at/how-to-avoid-facial-recognition May 9 2012

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‘How To Vacuum Form’

January 31, 2012

How To Vacuum Form from Aram Bartholl on Vimeo.

http://youtu.be/eE26y-r63vY, track byDanny Dive Thru
I am very pleased to finally publish this new project I’ve been working on the last couple months (def. not a Speed Project 😉 It was premiered last week at my solo show opening ‘Reply All’ at [DAM] Berlin. If you are in town drop by, check out the show and make your own mask! FOR FREE!!
‘Reply All’
Solo show: Aram Bartholl, January 28 – 10th March 10 2012
[DAM] Berlin, Neue Jakobstr. 6/7, 10179 Berlin


Materials:

  • polysterol 1-1,5 mm, 23 x 33 cm
  • plaster
  • hose, hose connectors
  • clamps
  • vacuum hand pump, (camping supply)
  • toaster
  • wooden board, rods
  • stop watch
  • original, prototype or master mask to make copies from

Tutorial:

  1. positive plaster cast from mask
  2. additional plaster modeling (chin and forehead) optional
  3. negative plaster cast from model to obtain master mold
  4. include hose, hose connector and holes for decompression in the cast
  5. toaster parts rearranged to heating board, mounted on stand
  6. heat 1mm polysterol approx. 2 min in 6cm distance
  7. and keep pumping !!


all pics on flickr!
Vacuum forming is a quite old technique and is used a lot in mass industry especially packaging and such. The lid of your coffee cup is vacuum form i.e. Students in product design are used to vacuum form their prototypes, it’s a very common technique in that field. You also find all kinds of tutorials on the web how to build your own DIY vacuum former (Instructables). The one I am proposing is less flexible in what you can produce but are able to produce the same piece in a rather fast cycle (2:30 min) The setup above was inspired by this video.
I think we live in a super interesting era. This is just the start of a paradigm shift from mass industry production to self DIY fabrication. And it s going to get very interesting with all the patents and copyright issues for physical objects very soon. Like Cory Doctorow puts it: “… to fight what we thought was the final boss at the end of the game, but it turns out it’s just been the mini-boss at the end of the level, and the stakes are only going to get higher.” I am super curious to see someone print a pair of Nike sneakers on the new makerbot replicator or just imagine Apple would sue everyone because your DIY tablet looks like an iPad. It might happen soon. – Aram Bartholl 2012
Build your own vacuum forming gear today. Copy, experiment and remix! Start coping physical things! And keep pumping!! 😉


Transparent Guy Fawkes


“You don’t know the power of the dark side! We are Legion. The force is with you. Expect us. Join the dark side !”

Darth Fawkes
“How To Vacuum Form”
by Aram Bartholl 2012

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How To Turn Code Into Art

October 12, 2011

[1st published on fffffat]

Art aware hackers!! Your code can be art! Yes, no kidding!!!

Recent events have shown again that computer code and its power is still underestimated by the public and governments. The way software is written, it s quality, openess, closedness etc. has a very high impact on which way society is taking.  Some small changes or features in code can result in an enormous loss of democratic values or lead to a hidden surveillance state.  Because comparably only few people can read and understand code it is so important we communicate it, discuss it in public and make it art! 🙂
Congrats to the CCC for revealing and revers engeneering this incredible piece of software and to FAZ (a leading german news paper, circulation of 360.000) which went of the charts by printing 5 full pages assembler code. Awesome!

BOINGBOING: Chaos Computer Club cracks Germany’s illegal government malware, a trojan that spies on your PC and lets anyone off the street hijack it
Germany’s Chaos Computer Club published the sourcecode for a piece of malware used by the German government to spy on citizens. The software was discovered in the wild and reverse engineered. It can be used to spy on or control remote PCs. Because of flaws in the software, anyone who was infected with this by German police was vulnerable to spying by “anyone on the street.” The German supreme court banned the use of trojans to spy on German citizens in 2008. ….

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