Data Observation Center: On Gestures

video installation, 2017

The work started from Vilém Flusser’s collection of essays “Gestures”, reviewing his definitions in regard to the autonomy of gestures. The pseudo-scientific video and the medical devices were considering if and how these definitions apply today.

As the usage of the word data becomes inflationary, its definition seems to become more and more obscure. What is data? How can we get to know those elusive particles apparently living behind our screens in a mystical space of ones and zeros, while they actually race through optic glass cables or spend boring lifes in well-shielded server farms? But how can we get closer to these abstract building blocks of our world? How can the secret life of the data be made visible and experienced through the means of art? virtuellestheater's project Data Observation Center was an attempt to answer those questions. In the process, acquired knowledge about the subject was constantly analyzed and deconstructed. Torn between science and fiction, speculation and documentation, bodies were transformed into numbers, data into plants, art into an interface and visitors into users.

The installation was part of the project Data Observation Center by virtuellestheater, showed at Treibstoff Theatertage Basel 2017. Co-produced with Treibstoff Theatertage Basel and Ballhaus Ost Berlin.

Data Observation Center was conceived by: Max Gadow, Adrian Ganea, Christopher Heisler, Hannah Müller, Sven Björn Popp
Producer: Lea Connert Technical Support: Claudio Bagno