“born digital? – art, life, games and technology”
- an exhibition of interactive media art in the “Cees Braakman Zaal”, Toonkamer (Rotsoord 3), Utrecht

curated by “Institute of Algorhythmics (Berlin)” in cooperation with AMAZE with Tim Horntrich, Akitoshi Honda & Shintaro Miyazaki and Wolfgang Spahn & Thomas Gerwin

Life and technology always played a role in our history. The myths about Golems, artificial humans, can be dated back to the middle age. In the 18th century Jacques de Vaucanson made complex machines who imitated humans or animals like the “Mechanic Fluteplayer” (1737) or his “Mechanic Duck” (1738).

The exhibition ”born digital? – art, life, games and technology” reflect this classical subject of life versus technology in our post-digital age and questions the real meaning of being digitally born.

Akitoshi Honda & Shintaro Miyazaki
– 2nd Order Diatoms (2009, Berlin)

(Picture by Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM), Bremen)

“2nd Order Diatoms” senses the rhythm of your mobile electronic gadgets, which you use in your daily life. The electromagnetic waves produced by the little machines get converted to sound and light.  “2nd Order Diatoms” is also a laser-installation, which creates circular patterns similar to some sort of diatoms, which are one of the oldest life forms of our earth. As artists we ask ourself: “How could LIFE FORM be synthesized?” Our answer: In the ancient ocean life form has began. In the ancient ocean there were many rhythms and frequencies, such as the waves of the ocean, vulcano’s furies and never ending thunders. They mixed each other and maybe effected to the forming of a new life form. We use the frequencies and rhythms of mobile phones to try to form new life forms. We call them “2nd Order Diatoms”.

Wolfgang Spahn & Thomas Gerwin
– Strike-The-Eyes (2008, Berlin)

“Strike-The-Eyes” is an interactive sound-light-installation of Thomas Gerwin and Wolfgang Spahn. The installation is an hypermedial interactive sound machine, which creates beautiful colorful life-like images created with 3 projectors with Ferro-Fluid (red, blue and green). It creates an illusion of colorful fluids animated by the sounds produced by the visitor. Sound becomes liquid.

Tim Horntrich
– Cmatch (2007, Berlin)

“Cmatch” is an interactive board game, in which you have to match the color of the dice to the color of the fields on the board. For example: If a field on the game board lightens up in green, you have to turn the dice until it illuminates green and then place it on the corresponding field as quickly as possible. Cmatch consists of a game board and two dices. 3 colors are displayed on the board randomly and illuminate for several seconds. Meanwhile the player needs to turn the dice to illuminate it in the matching color and then quickly put it on the same colored illuminated field on the board. Have fun and play against some friend and the machine!