Berlin continued

I thought the last post was long enough, so here's part 2...

Welt Aus Schrift: (site)

What can i say... it was large format posters.. most litho printed or screen printed and it was beautiful.. seeing posters from the the late 1800's and their modern day descendants, theres still no substitute for having your work printed, in context and off the computer screen! The scale actually made some the pieces more eye catching, whether they were large posters or small paper bags... theres just something about being able to see the print method used on a piece.. seeing over lap, mistakes and the thickness of the ink. James Corazzo actually pointed this out after buying the exhibition book and flaunting it around the breakfast table the next day... a reproduction/photograph never looks the same as the original and that certainly held true with some posters featured!

Film Archive:

I passed up a studio visit to go see the film archive, clear on the other side of Berlin, with the moving image students one day. Admittedly, a lot of the things they were getting excited over didnt really interest me as much (such as shelf after shelf full of cine films... just stacked in tins, and old film and tv cameras.. the kind you see Jack Black running around with in the King Kong remake) but what did appeal to me was the production/concept illustrations and a few of the props featured from films such as Hook, Gremlins and the original King Kong... i only hope in years to come, people look back on our generations and still say we have as much technical skill and expertise as some of the artists work we saw that day...

Other nice bits:

My BurgerKing cup from JohnLennon Airport... funky illustration... (360 wrap around.. wink wink)



Almost every lamp post or whatever is covered in stickers/posters/flyers...


So I added some of my own (with a little help from my old friend )




SWEZA:
whilst travelling and walking down to meet my friend, I passed a few sights that I took pics of.. i was looking for more stickers/posters to snap. I decided to stop and take these pics.. purely out of curiosity and annoyance.. now i knew roughly what they were but not how they work so i wanted to test them when i got back home. I have now learnt that these QR codes are just like barcodes... only instead of a laser to scan them, you use a 3G mobile device and relevant app to read the information contained within them... you can store basic information within the code.. such as contact details (name, no, address) or like in the case of the artist who posted these.. his URL to the site explaining what he was doing an why...

my picture..

the decode:
http://sweza.com/stromkasten.html


my picture:

the decode:

http://www.sweza.com/sesame.html

this second image shows the door actually opened... as if by followin the link/curiosity ... you have been granted the privilege to see on the other side of the door. Similarly, the first shot shows the electrical box thing toppled over, yet in my image it is upright which leads me to think the artist has set up the box their selves, hence why it is taped/held against the fence! its a sort of consequences of your actions.. or i like to see it more as a reward for your curiosity!!! after following the URL's, if you click the image itself.. you are taken the the main site.

stolen words:

I am using QR Codes to preserve graffiti for posterity by photographing the graffiti before it is removed. After the graffiti has been cleaned off by the local authorities or building owners i place a QR Code in the exact location which resolves to an image of the original. In that way a mobile phone with a QR-Code Reader can be used to travel back in time.

stolen video:



This Berlin based artist seems like the kind of person I actually aspire to me like, creating characters and introducing them around the city and also placing curiosity inducing pieces that make people stop and engage them.

characters: http://sweza.com/ubos/

interventions: http://sweza.com/interventions/


I've briefly played with the free QR code generators online to put my own URL into one of these funky squares.. and thought i could maybe tag work with them instead of signing them with my own name.. after all I do want some form of anonymity.. and I have literally this second devised a way in which I could abuse the use of hiding address in them.. when thinking of projects like Geo-Tagging scavenger hunts and or graffiti artist Space Invader, they both lead the audience on a journey around a city/environment... following clues or just hunting for these signs. In the case of Space Invader, the reward is seeing these mosaic creations of his hidden at various heights and at varying scales... you feel like you've actually stumbled upon them when you find them (unless you have the map!)... but for example, I could start with one obvious QR code in a primary position... and it has the address of the next location for a QR code in it.. there you follow these addresses to find the next clue along the chain.. (depending on where I put them.. I could hide some of shop shutters... that way you can only view soem clues at certain times!)... but what could the reward be at the end? I imagine it would have to be a URL featuring an image of some sort.. somethign that would make people want to track them all down.. maybe turn it into a game of hide and seek? or a lost and found.. as if a baby creature is lost and needs to follow the addresses to reach home??? as i said, i have JUST thought about it.. so bare with me! :P

my URL QR...



Geotagging game:


Gowalla - http://gowalla.com/

a slighty better explanation and tutorial of Gowalla... link

and finally the mosaic graffiti of..
Space Invader: site complete with map of Manchester..

all photos from Berlin can be found here... http://s563.photobucket.com/albums/ss80/howkercj/Berlin/

Berlin

So there are going to be a lot of photos uploaded now as I slowly catch up on what I have negelected over the last few days...

Berlin seems like so long ago now, but I'd love to go back and spend some more time there.. especially since one of the illustrators I was going to get in touch with has moved out there (the week after I left!) but like any city, there is always something going on.. you'll always find something that suits your tastes and some things that will surprise you as you didnt know they were even there! I went to Berlin with the intention of hitting the art galleries and not much else, I dont like being a typical tourist in some places just because certain things/places/sights start to lose their appeal... but here is a recollection of what I saw whilst in Berlin.

Sadly theres no easy way to upload all the pics i want and edit them so here are a select few... in no particular order.

Berlinische Gallery: (site)

this gallery held some interesting pieces of artwork, ranging from sculpture, installation, painting and interactive art.. but the gallery space and building itself felt a little more impressive than some of the artwork contained. Seeing the scale of some of the paintings and being close enough to appreciate the technique and skill was enjoyable.. better than going around the same old galleries in Manchester... but I seemed to be more interested in the 3D work featured.. e.g. Hans Uhlmann's wireframe sculpture and the New Berlin building maquettes. I even enjoyed some of the photography on exhibit there, although i think it was only because it was mainly shot on polaroid!

Hamburger Bahnhof: (site)

A rather strange building in the way that it is laid out, and stupidly large considering it used to be a train station.. but again, here I was drawn towards 3D work more than anything else on show.. purely because I feel the audience has a greater experience seeing something exist in three dimensions rather than staring at a flat painting behind glass (or a velvet rope). But saying that, no matter how many times you see an image in a book... it doesn't have the same effect when viewing the piece in real life.. here I got to experience the scale of some of Warhol's work.. and I have to say.. it is IMPRESSIVE!

Sadly, I was too excited and didnt take down the artists name here.. but I loved this little section of the gallery. The entire room looked more like a graffiti installation, rather than being a serious piece of art, it looks more like it was just fun scribbling on the walls... it makes a change after seeing room upon room of bare white walls/sterile environments to have this child like doodle room :) what I was saying about the audience having a greater experience in the viewing of artwork is summed up here where the whole room becomes the artwork in which you almost become a part of by stepping in there!

Direktoren Haus: (site)

Now, ive said the other galleries were rather strange but thats nothing when compared to visiting the Direktoren haus. Firstly, hidden away its a little awkward to find, but the interior looks more like a squatters exhibition in that each room feels like it was someones house before a bunch of artists descended on it and took over. Each room over the 2 floors was uniquely different, housing various works again from painting to sculpture. I certainly wasnt bored, considering I complain about boring flat images.. and its also here that I saw the RGB work of Carnovsky (another piece that envelops the audience in the work due to scale etc). It was great to see how something so simple could work so well with the wall of clock mechanisms slowly ticking and revolving a circular image through 360 degrees. I'm awaiting some footage of the animations playing at the Direktoren Haus but recently, I've been leaning towards the idea of animation.. hopefully when i get my hands on them, i will upload them here.

I've already ranted about my love of the Carnovsky work, so now I can ramble about the work of Konrad Korabiewski's 'Pavirket Som Kun' book. The book was actually placed in the centre of a room on a table, with a set of headphones next to it, directly underneath a low light and with a comfy chair to sit in. Once seated and ready with the headphones on, you open the book.. casually thumbing through the first few pages a music track fades in as you look at the visuals on the page.. then as I kept tuning I noticed these small tabs at the top of some pages.. when i reached the pages and turned them over, the sound track changed.. apparently tying in to the visuals printed.. yet neither james and myself did struggle on some.. feeling like the sound did neither enhance or take away from the pages. Limited to 100 pieces, these hand made books are part of the artwork itself and not just a format used to display them. I'm always keen on seeing new developments in technology and gadgets, and this seems to be a great combination of that mixed with artwork and music (another 2 passions of mine).




site for the book (it takes a while to load!) : link
Konrad Kobiewski's site : link
Litten (publisher?) site : link

stolen info:

About “Påvirket som kun et menneske kan være” book presentation:

With their mutual project Påvirket som kun et menneske kan være (”affected as only a human being can be”), Polish sound artist Konrad Korabiewski and Danish graphic artist Litten have created a groundbreaking interactive artwork – creating a tactile and poetic meeting between sound, image and text. Påvirket som kun et menneske kan være is shaped as a graphic book with build-in sound. The different audio chapters are activated when the pages are turned and can be listened to through headphones or speakers. The book form encourages a slow immersion in and a physical interaction with the artwork. An experience activating several senses. The tactile impression of the work is strongly emphasized by Littens graphic methods mixing several techniques such as collage, hand printed elements, linoleum print and pressed plants, often transgressing the plain page. In a similar way Korabiewski creates a rich and cinematic listening experience with a profound sense of musical space and depth. Live Korabiewski & Litten are mostly joined by German multi instrumentalist Roger Döring, who also plays on the recordings. Påvirket som kun et menneske kan være will be released on Danish label Geiger Records in a limited amount of 100 handfolded copies, each of them with a unique touch