DIALOGFELD I
DIALOGFELD I
Niklas Roy
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Niklas Roy is a Berlin-based freelance artist, with a background in the film industry, specializing on 3D art and Visual Effects. Through his artistic work, he explores art, science and technology, often in the form of humorous installations and machines. With a hands-on, DIY-approach, he undertakes most of the construction himself, as for him engineering, constructing and coding is a useful process for learning and new idea creation. His field of interest are the history and imaginary futures of technology. By working with different materials and techniques, he develops interactive media, through which he shares the unique and sometimes bizarre fruits of his contemplations. Together with his partner Kati Hyyppä, he furthermore develops workshop concepts for participants of all ages.
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BridA
Tom Kerševan, Sendi Mango, Jurij Pavlica
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BridA is a collective made up of Venice Academy of Fine Arts graduates Tom Kerševan, Sendi Mango, and Jurij Pavlica which was formed in 1996 during their university years. The group, which produces artwork across a wide spectrum of contemporary artistic practices, exhibits both locally and internationally, and has participated in numerous international residency programs, workshops, and seminars. It has been invited several times to curate the Pixxelpoint Festival in Nova Gorica and the R.o.R. Festival of contemporary artistic practices in Šempas. BridA’s works have been purchased for multiple international contemporary art collections. In 2015 it received the highest award of the Municipality of Nova Gorica, i.e. the France Bevk Prize, in honour of 20 years of successful activity, and in 2018 it was the recipient of the international Tesla Award, conferred by the Museum of Transitory Art in Ljubljana. It received of the Iaspis scholarship awarded by the Swedish Ministry of Culture, and a Culture Bridges grant, awarded by the British Council with the support of EU funds.
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BridA’s artistic production spans a broad field of interdisciplinary art practices. The artists leverage innovative technological and scientific approaches that create revolutionary new ways of understanding contemporary art. Their interactive projects actively involve the public in the artistic process, and through the years the public has become the main protagonist of their artistic projects.
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Kati Hyyppä
Kati Hyyppä is a Finnish, Berlin-based artist and educator who works at the intersection of art and technology. In addition to building objects and installations, she gives courses and workshops. Her practice is rooted in materiality and hand-making, exploring different media from electronics and code to wood, recycled objects and textiles. Being inspired by the DIY and hacker culture, her process centers on curiosity and learning through experimentation. Her projects often include an element of participation, critical making and humor as means to open up a dialogue with society’s technological surroundings.
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‣VEKTOR
KOLLEKTOR
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NIKLAS ROY & KATI HYYPPÄ
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Vektorkollektor is an interactive installation that enables people to draw pictures with a joystick. The mechanism of the machine comes from an old plotter from the 80ies, which has been modified and furnished with music and light effects. The installation is built as a handcart and put into action in various public places in Chemnitz. On site, the artists collect vectors, using this device. Everyone is invited to draw pictures through the playful interface and take their creations home. Additionally, the coordinates of all lines drawn will be archived in the form of an analogue-digital data set.
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All vectors drawn with the Vektorkollektor are digitally transferred to the website and can be viewed here:
>> Vektorkollektor
photo credit: Johannes Richter
‣TRACKEDS &
DOITYOURSELF
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BRIDA
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T R A C K E D S
BridA's Trackeds investigates the dynamics of movement and topographical structures in the city. Through photographs of diverse dynamic sites, a non-linear function is visualised that illustrates the chaotic movements of self-organising structures in selected urban contexts. The artists analyse the construction process of the visual work. They automate the interpretation of the process steps with a mathematical equation.
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D O I T Y O U R S E L F
Is the direct transfer of art into society possible? Can a work be independent of the artist(s)?
How is the critical distance between work and artist defined in the making? These questions are the starting point for a reassessment of already entrenched artistic creative processes, which are now taken apart and reassembled with a fresh approach. A picture is broken down to its pixels; following automated instructions, passers-by paint these on a canvas. Square by square, an entirely new picture is generated through human error and collective work.
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>> Trackeds Chemnitz, City Centre
photo credit: BridA
>> Work on vektorkollektor
photo credit: Johannes Richter
>> Vektorkollektor
photo credit: Johannes Richter
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‣THREE QUESTIONS TO
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NIKLAS ROY
What were your first associations when you heard about "drag & drop"?
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Niklas: "When I heard about the topic of drag & drop, I thought: sure - that has something to do with GUI's, with computers, with surface interaction, with dragging and dropping files. On the other hand, of course, it also fits very well with what my partner Kati and I do together artistically. We often work digitally and in public spaces, and that entails taking our physical installations with us ('dragging') and then just dropping them wherever we find an audience ('dropping')."
What kind of project have you thought about for this year's Dialogfelder?
Niklas: "The project we are currently working on together will be a "vector collector", a mobile device with which we collect vectors. The idea is that people can make drawings with a joystick. The images will be stored digitally and we will build up an archive of vector drawings. We will process the vectors in the final week, with the aim of leaving something lasting on Sonnenberg."
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Digitality in Chemnitz urban space, especially on the Sonnenberg: science fiction or everyday life?
Niklas: "On the Sonnenberg, I immediately noticed the positive network coverage via Freifunk. I would also like to have something like that in Berlin. Chemnitz is already further ahead than other cities and that's a great thing."
‣THREE QUESTIONS TO
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BRIDA
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What kind of project did you plan for this year’s Dialogfelder?
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Sendi: "Immediately when we got contacted by Klub Solitaer we had an idea to make the city the protagonist of our project. Actually we created two projects: „DO IT YOURSELF“ is in a way a performance in which we paint collectively with the public. We go in a special location, maybe a park. Then we start painting, listening to the audio instructions and invite people to join us to produce this painting together.
The second project is „Trackeds“ where people are again participants in the project but they are not aware of it. The project is about filming the city from specific locations and using the movements from the streets from cars and people as a tool of creating a new artwork and music."
Did you already had an image of Chemnitz in advance and did you create new image when you were here?
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Sendi: "No, we knew that Chemnitz was elected for the European Capital of Culture 2025 like our city Nova Gorica. When we arrived is was a very cold and rainy day - nobody was on the streets. But then my perception of the place changed in the next days because I saw later how much is happening here and that there are actually a lot of people around you. I know this sounds to proper Chemnitzers absurd maybe: but so fare I encountered only people who are very openminded. So if my image has changed, it changed for the better. "
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What do you want to tell us with your work at Dialogfelder?
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Sendi: "Actually the people of Chemnitz are meant to talk about their ideas and dreams for the city. We just like to be three artists behind the camera and observe what happens and then maybe also have a talk with people to have a feedback."
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Jurji: "For our work it is typical that we create an environment where the public becomes the main focus. The people who will participate will actually create an artwork. The interesting part of our work is that the art doesn’t depend only on us. At the end we are also observers, not only artists."
>> DOITYOURSELF Chemnitz
photo credit: Johannes Richter
>> DOITYOURSELF Chemnitz
photo credit: Johannes Richter
>> "Artistic documentation Dialogfeld 2"
‣MEDIATION FORMATS
Through diverse art mediation formats, we integrate the neighborhood in this year's DIALOGFELDER. Experiments with digital technologies and hybrid formats complement each other - often playful and always participatory, we offer the locals new artistic tools for urban space transformation in the context of small events and actions in the district, so that they are empowered to jointly re-shape their quarter.
WORKSHOP
GRAFFITIPLOT
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KATI HYYPPÄ
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SUN-SIGN
VEKTORSCOPE
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Through DIY and handcrafting techniques, this workshop devises objects and experiences related to new technologies. Hands-on multimedial experiences are hereby made available to the neighborhood.
A huge graffiti was created on the facade of Jakobstraße 43, In cooperation with Tortuga e.V.. Plotted by locals, the collected vectors are thus visualized as an idea-collection in the district.
A neighborly horoscope devised from the plotted drawings (vectors) and associative texts written by locals, who thereby share their creative and quaint associations concerning the collected ideas with the public.
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By applying a universal formula, everyone can calculate their own sun-sign and catch a glimpse of their future!
>> Workshop Graffitiplot
The Dialogfelder 2021 are funded by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony and the Cultural Capital Office Chemnitz 2025. This measure is co-financed by tax funds on the basis of the budget passed by the Saxon State Parliament. The mediation programme is financed by a grant from Fonds Soziokultur from the programme of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) "NEUSTART KULTUR".