Karma
ARTIST
YEAR
COUNTRY
MEDIA
KARMA is a “living” environment, a procedurally changing audiovisual installation.
KARMA follows a non-linear progression in which moments of commotion are followed by periods of meditative peace. The installation comes alive via humanoid 3D figures suspended, often seemingly unwell, trembling and oscillating. Their movements emanate a drone-like sound-scape. The 3D characters are presented as puppets on strings, instilling them with a familiar yet ambiguous sense of human life, resulting in an indefinite dance of the almost living dead.
Karma is incidentally the name of the physics simulation unit within Unreal Tournament, a multi player computer game. Karma in UT or similar “3D real-time engines” describes the simulation of physical laws like gravity & kinetic forces.
In KARMA / cell, the motions and actions of the 3D characters synthesize through an additional sound software, a dynamic sound-track composed on the fly. The characters each are a discrete musical instrument and become, through their “motions and emotions,” part of a symphonic, multilayered body of sound. Both the realtime synthesis of the characters motions and their sounds build, within the scripted frame defined by the artist, an endlessly changing variety of emotional expressions.
Karma / cell was commissioned by “Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains”, France.
Biography
Kurt Hentschläger
New York based Austrian artist Kurt Hentschläger creates performances and environments. The immersive nature of his work reflects on the metaphor of the sublime and the human condition.
Trained as fine artist, he began to exhibit his work in 1983, building surreal machine-objects, and then video works, computer animation and sound.
Between 1992 and 2003 he worked collaboratively as a part of the duo Granular-Synthesis. Employing large scale projected images and drone like sound-scapes, his performances confronted the viewer on both a physical and emotional level, overwhelming the audience with sensory stimulation.
His current solo work further researches the nature of human perception and the accelerated impact of new technologies on both individual and collective consciousness.
Hentschläger is a recipient of numerous prizes and large-scale commissions. He has represented Austria at the 2001 Venice Biennial and has shown his work internationally for two decades. Selected presentations include the Milllenium Museum, Beijing, Staedelijk Museum Amsterdam, In the Anchorage - Creative Time, Inc., New York, MAC - Musée d'Art Contemporain Montreal, MAK - Museum of Applied Arts Vienna, National Museum for Contemporary Art Seoul, Ars Electronica Festival Linz, ICC Inter-Communication-Center Tokyo, Fondation Beyeler Basel, Palacio de Bella Artes, Mexico City
His recent performance "FEED" premiered at the 2005 Venice Theatre Biennial and is currently touring and the procedural installation "KARMA / cell" was commissioned in 2006 by Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, France.
Website
Synthetic Times - Media Art China 2008 won the Most Influential Art Exhibition of China 2008 jury grand award. the exhibition opened on June 9th, 2008, with over 600 guests attending the opening ceremony, including more than 150 guests from around the world. Fan Dian, the director of NAMOC, and Zhang Ga, artistic director and curator of the exhibition, gave opening remarks. Read more
"The Future of the Present or the Present of the Future", a roundtable discussion with distinguished quests from leading media arts institutions around the world took place on June 10, 2008 at NAMOC Read more
