Attended the opening of What If Your Smartphone Is On, part performance and part exhbition by Stefan Mildenberger.
There was a realtime performance by the artist, using a projection of realtime deliberately glitched-up-scanning of a phone screen, and layering samples of academic media talks on top of a soundscape. The gallery isn’t very large and I was at the back, so I didn’t catch much of the performance. Also my German isn’t strong enough to follow what sounded like really boring, droning media theory lecture samples, so I kind of spaced out of that part.
The artist was using some kind of setup projecting his phone onto the wall and according to the website, there is an experimental scanning process distorting the imagery. How this worked during live performance I really couldn’t tell, I didn’t see much. In theory a good idea. In practice, something-something-happening-over-there.
But the resulting frozen artworks from this process, installed on the walls are absolutely beautiful, with delicious glitchy textures, digital shifts, wonderful artifacts and distortions. Having the strange scanning / sound performance running diffused to my attention in the background, I actually had a splendid time for myself studying the works. When I have my expensive villa full of rare Bauhaus furniture and a library with those green English bank-lamps this is the kind of artworks I would put up.
