In this hi-tech age, the relationship between artist and viewer is a complicated one. There has always been the tacit agreement of suspension of disbelief between them, that what is presented may be altered or manipulated, but that the intention of the artist is to reveal some kind of truth nonetheless. Digital technology provides the means to doctor photos in every context, be it in advertising, art, or even private use. We seem to have all come to the agreement that when it comes to visual media, there is always room for improvement.

[7:08 min] download for: mobile | Computer & iPod | send feedback

The artist Helmut Grill worked for many years in the field of photographic manipulation. In the early years, the necessary equipment for this venture would take up an entire room. Now, Photoshop is a standard application on every computer—almost no photo goes unretouched. Those with advanced skills in this craft are among the highest-paid in the media industry. But despite our awareness of this sophisticated process, we still engage in the game of believing what we see, or at least enjoying the challenge of thinking we can still determine what’s real or what’s not. more »

Gordan Savicic, graduate of the digital art department of the University for Applied Arts in Vienna, master’s degree from the Piet Zwart Institute for Media Design Art, Design, Hacking, and Leisure in Rotterdam. Self designation: independent electronics specialist, developer, speaker, and RealGamer. In his work, the artist argues, in a playful and sophisticated way, for virtual worlds based on information and communication technologies and their influence on the material world.

[7:16 min] download for: mobile | computer & iPod | send feedback

The virtual does not only produce consequences in the virtual world. The sociologist Manuell Castells describes this phenomenon in his work on “The Information Age” like this: The terms for space in the virtual world are described as currents and networks of capital. At its hubs, the virtual space in material space introduces frantic cities and desolates entire regions. Within the virtual space, the future is pre-digested in a speculative manner and that which is not appetizing does not arrive in the present. more »

Picture for yourself reality. Is that reality immediate, direct, unexpected? Should we attribute this power of reality to something within the medium or to the medium itself? Reality, realized as a procedure of exclusion, as an attempt at reduction, has reigned over the scientific and artistic arguments that have existed over centuries. In the last twentieth century, this gateway was submerged in the continually rising flood of the everyday vocabulary of visual art.

[8:56 min] download for: mobile | computer & iPod | send feedback

The influence of this radical change on the work of the painter Franziska Maderthaner is visible. Instead of reduction, construction, de- and re-construction, and bricolage prevail. Instead of strict exclusion, surplus of meaning. Instead of the pathos of one, a play with references with which to assemble and compose. more »

Under revolving pastry plates with star motifs, cut-outs from pictures of bygone eras appear. Shadows of hands form letters over photographs and textiles throw folds over 16-millimeter film loops, which gradually go up in flames. Rotary pumps from aquariums propel multicolored oil droplets on water surfaces in a circular motion, instrumental sounds get mixed in with vocal experiments.

[6:49 min] download for: mobile | computer & iPod | send feedback

Visual and acoustic echoes bounce off the walls, flowing, climbing, covering, and piling over microphones and slide, overhead, and rattling film projectors. The projected collective spectacle succeeds in flooding the viewer with an overflowing variety in the form of a broad audiovisual image, creating a kind of audiovisual synergy. 4shrooms consider themselves the participants of such audiovisual performances. What they have in common is innovation, experimentation, and analog collaboration. more »