ɧყƖē

About

In Aristotelian philosophy, Hylē is the original substance, the primordial matter that only takes shape through human processing (tecnē).1

The audiovisual installation Hylē interacts with one of the most existential bodily mechanisms of living beings: breathing. Between observation, meditation, material experimentation and playful action Hylē offers an algae-altered narration about aspects of our world. The work investigates visual metaphors of network dynamics modulated in realtime through interaction with a living biological sculpture and the larger context. Hylē displays the successive interconnectedness of the presence, the actions taking place within and the effects, reactions and feedbacks they cause.

The multi-channel video environment is created from 3D-laser scans of a forest and the inside of a serverfarm and open for interaction to the public via an air sensor connected to the central algae bioreactor. By breathing into a funnel device two aspects of the work are affected: firstly, the CO2 enriched air will be measured by a sensor before it is being pumped into the bioreactors. The sensor signals will trigger disturbances and abstraction in the scanned video environments and sound synthesis in realtime. Secondly, algae need CO2 for their metabolism and will release Oxygen in this process which is returned to the air in the exhibition space thus creating a feedback between human breath, algae and the audiovisual spheres. By this Hylē suggests an aesthetic and conceptual relation by interlinking a forest as a hyperorganism with a serverfarm as metaphors for the underlying networks of our digital and carbon lifes.

The audience is invited to participate in the interactive installation, experiencing the direct impact of their existence by altering the immersive and ephemeral audiovisual environment and by this their own sensorial state.

Exhibition: 11 – 19 June 2022, WED-FR 4 – 7 pm, SA-SU 3 – 7 pm
Opening: 10 June, 6pm to 10pm
Closing + Artist talk: 19 June 2022, 5pm
Opening also on request: assistant@theresaschubert.com

More information and press material: hyle.theresaschubert.com

Atelierhof Kreuzberg
Schleiermacherstr. 31
10961 Berlin
U7 Gneisenaustr.

Hylē is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Hylē was originally commissioned by laboratoria Art+Science Foundation.

1 Werner Marx: Einführung in Aristoteles‘ Theorie vom Seienden, Freiburg i. Br. 1972, S. 40.