|
PROSTHESES.
Transhuman Life Forms
Susanna
Hertrich
Susanna Hertrich, Jacobson’s Fabulous Olfactometer,
Digital photograph, 2014
Opening: 25 September, 2015 8PM
Panel discussion with Susanna Hertrich & Enno Park: 13 November,
2015
Exhibition runs: 26 September – 29 November, 2015, Fri-Sun
2-6PM and by appointment
Open 27 November until 9PM; Finissage: 29 November from 3PM
Art Laboratory Berlin is pleased to present an exhibition of works
by the artist Susanna Hertrich, which reflect the phenomenon
of prostheses as an extension of the human in the 21st century.
In the context of the latest technologies as well as current developments
in the field of neuroscience and biology, Susanna Hertrich presents
new transhuman sensory extensions that are closely linked to the
debate on human 2.0.
The
exhibited works are part of her long-term artistic research project
Bodies & Technology. In Susanna Hertrich’s work
a narration is constructed in which the human sensory apparatus
is extended through computer controlled prostheses. The results
can be understood as crossing the boundaries between artistic hypothesis
and technological experimentation. The artworks reflect our current
living environments, as well as critically question the social,
political and physical consequences of the new technologies utilised
in their making.
The Jacobson's Fabulous Olfactometer (JFO), a device worn
on the head and face, is a sensorial prosthesis that mimics mammalian
„flehmen response“ in reaction to danger. When the device
detects a threatening level of pollution the prosthesis curls back
the wearer’s top lip, exposing her teeth. Susanna Hertrich
developed the project during a research stay at TASML, Tsinghua
University, Beijing in 2012, and the work refers directly to the
heavy air pollution of the Chinese metropolis (see video). The JFO
simultaneously refers to a common, but often invisible 21st century
threat. Here the post-anthropocentric gesture is noteworthy –
the artist offers people the possibility of adopting a biologically
programmed response to danger from elsewhere in the animal kingdom.
In the display cases one can see works from the series Prostheses
for Instincts which explores the idea that by augmenting our
natural sensory experiences we can widen the range of our perceptions.
In doing so Hertrich has created new mechanisms for surviving in
a changing world.
The series was, for the most part, created during a research stay
at the University of Tokyo from 2009. Within the Meta Perception
Research Group, Susanna Hertrich discussed aesthetic, functional
and ethical questions with Dr. Carson Reynolds († 2014) and
Dr. Alvaro Cassinelli: What if we had devices that induced emotions
in a manner similar to instincts, but triggered by non-tangible
stimuli? What if we used machines to act as prostheses for instincts
we have not yet developed?
The work Synthetic Empathy, for example, allows us to express
repressed and painful emotions through the use of various prostheses.
Different devices enable an empathetic openness in the form of staged
states of anxiety, panic or grief.
The prosthesis Alertness Enhancing Device refers to our perception
of global threats (e.g. the media charged threat of terror attacks
vs. the actual, but less visible hazards emanating from climate
change). The device gives small electric shocks to train users to
recognize 'real' dangers.
The preparation of the works in the display cases plays with the
metaphor of classical scientific exhibition collections and thus
generates a tension between a scientifically factual form of presentation
and a narrative fictional character, in which the works are staged.
As an exhibition within the exhibition, the viewer is faced with
a staged museal systematics, which unharnesses the dynamics of speculative
design.
The exhibition also contains photographs, drawings and collages
that visualise the artistic creation process of the prostheses.
The diagrams developed by Hertrich and Reynolds refer to themes
of human instincts or artificial fear.
Automatic Anchoring Armour (AAA) is intended as an "instant
therapy for nervous people" (Hertrich). The work is an artistic
commentary on the debate about Furedi's ‘cultivation of vulnerability’.
Instead of psychotherapy and the associated disclosure of ones own
mental vulnerability, the artist suggests a rather more immediate
cure through acupressure.
The recently created work Untitled (Nine) marks the beginning
of a series in which Susanna Hertrich goes beyond the imitation
of animal senses (see the display cases). The portrait shows a young
woman with the nose (and complex sense organ) of a star nose mole
(Condylura cristata) which lives in North America. By mounting
animal sense organs on the human face, Hertrich places the immediate
fusion of humans and animals at the centre of debate, touching on
a wide range of current discussion, not least ethical.
In order to expand a greater discourse, we are showing in the back
room a documentary by Rafel Duran Torrent about the Cyborg
Foundation. The focus is on the artist Neil Harbisson,
born completely colour blind, who can now hear colours using the
"Eyeborg," and was the first cyborg officially recognized
by a State.
Regine
Rapp & Christian de Lutz (Curators)
labiotech.
eu published on 08.01.2016 by Dani Bancroft, BioArt in Berlin: Making
Dystopia Beautiful with Prostheses and the Transhuman Life
Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung, published 25 November, 2015 by Tamara Marszalkowski,
Prothesen als
Thesen in Geisteswissenschaft. P. 3
BERLINARTLINK
published November 2015, by Alison Hugill, Susanna Hertrich
Hyperallergic.com, published am 22 November, 2015 by Gretta Louw,
Prosthetic Devices for the Modern Psyche
Form.de
published October 2015, Prostheses. Transhuman Life Forms. Susanna
Hertrich
art-in-berlin.de
publiziert am 16. Oktober 2015, Reparatur von Wirklichkeit: Susanna
Hertich bei Art Laboratory Berlin
Form.de
published October 2015, Prostheses. Transhuman Life Forms. Susanna
Hertrich
Press
text as .pdf
For
more Information:
http://www.susannahertrich.com/
Our
2015 programme is made possible in part by a generous gift from
Michael Schröder.
Medienpartner:
Jacobson's Fabulous Olfactometer
Automatic Anchoring Armour
Prostheses
for instincts
Prostheses
for instincts
|
