ralf baecker - Nowhere
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Nowhere

Installation - 2005
Nowhere Documentation, 2005

Nowhere is a landscape in the making. Without knowing the users of the German search engines “Metager” and “Metager2”, operated by the University of Hannover, erode the surface of a block of PU-foam (75cm x 75cm x 10cm). The incoming (real-time) search requests control the head of a custom build three-dimensional milling machine. Every request gets immediately inscribed into the material.

Nowhere acts similar to a photo-optical long-time exposure. The shutter opens for up to three weeks (depending on the exhibition duration) and constantly updates the emerging relief. Search queries get interpreted as eroding forces on the surface of the landscape. Simultaneously every entered search term is used as an energy impulse to move the milling head one step forward. Activity removes material. In times with less activity (e.g. in the night hours) the machine works slow and sluggish while during peak times (e.g. midday) the machine works rapidly and hectically. The continuous stream of alternating search requests defines the form and rhythm of this process. The developing space/time sculpture embodies a non-existing place, made visible by search engine users without knowledge. The raw and pixelated appearance and aesthetics of the inscribed landscape hint at its digital/virtual origin.

Nowhere - Academy of Media Arts Cologne, 2005
Nowhere - Academy of Media Arts Cologne, 2005
Nowhere - Art Cologne, 2005
Nowhere - Art Cologne, 2005
Nowhere - Art Cologne, 2005
Nowhere - Art Cologne, 2005
Nowhere - Academy of Media Arts Cologne, 2005
Nowhere - Melkweg Amsterdam, 2005
Nowhere installation at ArtCologne 2005
Nowhere - Art Cologne, 2005
Nowhere
Nowhere Nr.1 Time-Lapse Kunsthochschule für Medien, Köln 2005
Materials:
PC, aluminium profiles, stepper motors, custom electronics, custom software

Credits:
In cooperation with metager and metager2
Produced with the support of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne

Exhibitions/Performances:

2009 32. Bremer Förderpreis für Bildende Kunst 2008
Städtische Galerie im Buntentor, Bremen DE

2007 From Reality and Back
Mejan Labs / Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm SE

2007 Nowhere Nr. 4
Melkweg Media Space, Amsterdam NL

2006 Intermezzo
Academy of Media Arts, Cologne DE

2006 Altitude 06
Academy of Media Arts, Cologne DE

2006 autopsía - Sonderausstellung der KHM
Art Cologne 2006, Cologne DE