2024
ON THE EXPANDED VIEW
In the exhibition < an den erweiterten Blick (on the expanded view), Isabella Til and Johannes Raimann examine the relationship between the body and digital technology. In doing so, they direct their gaze both inwards and outwards. From the inside, the personal use of these technologies becomes visible, while the view to the outside reveals the social conditions. The way in which the artworks are produced is also included, with digital and analogue tools and techniques intertwining.
The conscious human gaze, perception through the eye, is a process that not only affects our sensory organs and our brain, but also involves our emotions and stored experiences. This process leads us to certain attitudes and actions. Western history refers to this core of being as Intelligence, Ego or Spirit, in which we store acquired information. Almost all human questions of being touch on the relationship between body and mind and further how this knowledge can be stored culturally.
Over the course of time, mankind has developed various tools to store and pass on knowledge and insights. These range from cuneiform writing, book printing and libraries to the almost infinite capacity of electronic storage. (1) At the same time, there was always a mistrust of any new medium. Plato's criticism of writing (ca. 400 BC), for example, argued that writing things down promotes forgetfulness and prevents the immediate internalisation of what has been learned.
If we keep this intensive type of learning in mind and consider that any medium can only be a simulation of human thought, the tool character of even artificial intelligence becomes apparent. The complex interplay between the human body and mind is difficult to decipher and just as difficult to replace. Nevertheless, engaging with technical devices opens up possibilities as long as we do not allow ourselves to be dazzled by their shining effects. It is important to recognise that a new medium does not necessarily replace an old one, but complements it. Both artists are not blue-eyed digital utopians, but try to address the responsible interplay between human and technical capabilities and phenomena in their work.
Isabella Til has been using the computer as a drawing tool since 1988. She can make decisions during this timeless process more analytically than in her gestural-expressive handling of the traditional material of colour. The playful use of digital techniques gives her the opportunity to achieve equally surprising results as with hand drawings. In contrast to the spontaneous, irrevocable brushstroke, the computer makes it possible to replicate and revoke painterly decisions and to use archive material. Isabella Til condenses both experiences in mutual reflection on the canvas. Hybrid spatial structures of light and colour emerge between pixel and brush.
Isabella Til's investigations revolve around the theme of abstract painting in an increasingly analogue-digital environment and concentrate on the effects of this interplay on people. For Isabella Til, the critical exploration of the barely nameable ‘in-between’ in the human-machine relationship is one important challenge of our contemporary thinking.
Johannes Raimann is intensively involved with the foundations and conditions of photography. In his works, he emphasises phos (light) in combination with graphía (drawing). For him, photographic technologies are an essential means of visualising political, economic and social processes. For some years now, Raimann has been increasingly investigating digital photography. He creates reflective surfaces that not only mirror the viewer, but also global production chains and the associated economic and social conditions. The process of visualising and making tangible is at the centre of his artistic approach. By showing the material of the supposedly disembodied ‘digital’, Raimann also makes it open to criticism. He uses the conditions and limitations of digital technologies to show new perspectives on the use and effects of these technologies
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(1) Cf. Vilém Flusser, Gedächtnisse, in: Philosophien der neuen Technologie, Ars Electronica (ed.), Merve Verlag 1988, p. 41ff.
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One Hand, Other Hand, 2024
Acrylic, oil, on unprimed nettle and computer generated graphic print
