As part of AUDINT with Toby Heys (http://www.batteryoperated.net/spirawl/),
I have a sound installation in this exhibition in Berlin in 2009. The
installation entitled ‘Unsound Systems’ explores the peripheries of
auditory perception and sound as a weapon.
EMBEDDED ART
Art in the Name of Security
An exhibition presented by the Akademie der Künste, Berlin and ‘Künstlergruppe BBM’
24th January to 22nd March 2009
Akademie der Künste
Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin-Mitte, Tel. +49 (30) 200 57-1513, heilmann@adk.de
Tue - Sun 11am - 8pm, admission: € 6, concessions € 4
Admission free every 1st Sunday of the month, admission free for under 18’s
Sponsored by the ‘Hauptstadtkulturfonds’
Concept
In 2009, the first exhibition of the year at Berlin’s Akademie der
Künste will be devoted to a topical, highly political theme. EMBEDDED
ART looks at the threats to unrestricted public life following the 9/11
attacks and the attacks in Madrid, Moscow and London. Security issues
in the 21st century have an impact on the day-to-day life of millions
of people. Since terrorism has reached major European and US cities
that were once considered safe, citizens have been subject to
increasing state control. To ensure comprehensive physical, political
and national integrity, security has become a new ideology, the
‘mantra’ of civilised society.
For EMBEDDED ART, the curators Olaf Arndt, Moritz von Rappard,
Janneke Schönenbach and Cecilia Wee of artist’s group ‘Künstlergruppe
BBM’ have commissioned international artists to respond to the current
situation. EMBEDDED ART will only show works realised on location or
against a background of research into future security. The diverse
works focus on the conflicting fields of terrorism and terror, security
and control. Broadly speaking, the artists can be said to explore the
subject in the following three ways: investigating the validity of ‘new
threats’, the predominantly technical reactions to these threats, and
their resulting impact on society. EMBEDDED ART is the working
principle, ‘art in the name of security’ is the theme of the
exhibition, a provocative phrase which itself is an artistic comment on
one of the core questions of global development.
EMBEDDED ART also reflects the ambivalent relationship between
artists and the state military machinery. So-called ‘war artists’ were
dispatched to the front for the first time by the Australian government
during World War I to capture the soldier’s experiences directly at the
scene of events. Even as far back as 1944, ‘military science fiction’
authors collaborated with US army defence engineers to design the
‘cyber soldier’ in preparation for a Third World War. Today, the
dispatch of ‘war artists’ in the ‘war on terror’ is still an
established military practice. Artists in their capacity as researchers
of the imaginable perhaps pave the way to a new reality, their
fantasies selectively exploited for the development of new security
strategies. EMBEDDED ART, conversely, introduces artists who are intent
on enlightenment, not affirmation.
The exhibition venue - the Akademie building at Pariser Platz - is
directly linked to the exhibition theme. The Pariser Platz, which was
still a symbol for the end of the Cold War during the late 1990s, has
become a security perimeter for international politics since 9/11. With
its embassies, banks, a luxury hotel and architecture reminiscent of
modern strongholds, it is located between the new hub of political
power and the Holocaust memorial, hence the square is potentially one
of the most-at-risk, most closely guarded, locations in the Federal
Republic. EMBEDDED ART’s exhibition concept incorporates the Pariser
Platz, thereby creating a further level in the interaction of artistic
imagination and stark reality, the project’s focal point.
Ultimately, EMBEDDED ART provides - in conjunction with the
exhibition ‘Raum’ (2007) and the programmes on the radical changes of
1968 and 1989, ‘Kunst und Revolte’ (2008/09) - a new contribution to a
significant debate, one of the great challenges the Akademie has set
itself: the campaign for public space as a democratic space.
Following on from the exhibition ‘Raum’ (2007) and the programmes on
the radical changes of 1968 and 1989, ‘Kunst und Revolte’ (2008/09),
EMBEDDED ART ultimately provides a unique and significant contribution
to the debate and campaign for public space as a democratic right: one
of the great challenges the Akademie has set itself.
The Exhibition
With more than 30 commissioned works, the exhibition not only
highlights many of the pertinent issues relating to global security, it
also offers fascinating insight into current trends in contemporary art
practice, featuring artists from Germany, Great Britain, Japan, South
Africa, Italy and Slovenia showing visual art, video art, media art,
photography, music, and sound art.
The video artists Korpys & Löffler film a
Rhineland-Palatinate-police riot squad workshop, where officers are
instructed in the use of the Taser electronic control device. Painter
Moritz ® portrays ‘Five Peace Monsters’, the protagonists of new
technologies for political control. Photographer Christina Zück travels
to Karachi, where she records the ‘psycho-geography’ of a site on the
‘axis of evil’, collaborating with the Pakistani photographer Zahid
Hussein. British dubstep pioneer Steve Goodman (aka Kode 9) in
collaboration with sound artist Toby Heys illustrate the physical
sensations of future sonic weaponry with their installation ‘Unsound’.
Peter Kennard mounts a 20-metre-wide collage on command centres - ‘War
Rooms’. Musician Paul B. Davies reworks legendary ‘Popcorn’-composer
Gershon Kingsley’s ‘Security-Song’.
The influence of EMBEDDED ART will also reach beyond the Akademie’s
walls into Berlin’s public spaces. Posters designed by five
internationally renown graphic artists will spread the word all over
the city. Works by video artists will be shown on a 60-square-metre
display on the façade of the Akademie building. The performance artist
Richard Dedomenici stages interventions on Pariser Platz.
Exhibition Presentation
The exhibition format itself reflects the central issue of security,
enabling the visitor to live the experience. Only projections of the
works, transmitted from the hi-tech secure basement of the building
using the latest surveillance technology, will be seen in the
Akademie’s exhibition halls. The visitors can choose to visit
projections of the artworks in the exhibition halls for a small
entrance fee, the originals can only be viewed on a guided tour of the
secure area, accompanied by security personnel.
Contributing Artists (as at 18.11.0 
Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin; Alexander Krohn; Andreas Strauss;
Angelika Schneider von Maydell; BBM - Beobachter der Bediener von
Maschinen; Cameron Bobro; Cecilia Wee; Christina Zück & Zahid
Hussein; Florian Wuest; Fons Hickmann; Georg Schmalhofer; Gunter
Rambow; Hans-Werner Kroesinger; Heidi Specker; Jacques Coetzer;
Jonathan Barnbrook; Jörg Möller; Jörn Buttelmann; Kalle Laar; Ken
Hollings & Rathna Ramanathan; Keven McAlester; Klaus Staeck &
REMOTEWORDS; Korpys / Löffler; Lars Vaupel; Lillevan & Zaji Chalem;
Lutz Westermann & Peter Halasz (†); Monika Schedler; Moritz ®;
Neville Brody; Oliver Kunkel; Omar Vulpinari; Paul B Davis &
Gershon Kingsley; Peter Kennard & Cat Picton Phillipps; Richard
DeDomenici; Sally Gutierrez; Simon Tyszko; Steve Goodman aka Kode9
& Toby Heys; Thomas Heise; Timm Ulrichs; U.R.A. / FILOART;
Valentinas Klimasauskas; Vassilios Georgiadis; Yuko Shimizu; Zsolt
Barat.
Ancillary Events
The exhibition will be accompanied by events, guided tours, debates and
movie screenings. Each Friday, artists and guest speakers will discuss
the exhibition in the temporary bar ‘Bar zur inneren Sicherheit’ on the
top floor of the Akademie.
Publication
‘Verlag argo books’ will publish a comprehensive catalogue, including specially commissioned essays to accompany the exhibition.