About Clouds, Robots and the Sea – Thoughts on the Aesthetics of Metabolic Formations, Biodiversity and New Ecologies in Art and Design

Are there aesthetic links between clouds, robots and the sea? The lecture by Babette Marie Werner, the performative talk with visual artist Anne Duk Hee Jordan and artistic and design researcher Clemens Winkler explored relations between visual interpretations of metabolic formations, biodiversity and new ecologies in art and design. This event was part of the exhibition »Stretching Materialities« by »Object Space Agency«. Click below to watch the full artist talk online.

Abstract

Are there aesthetic links between clouds, robots and the sea? This lecture by Babette Marie Werner and the performative talk with visual artist Anne Duk Hee Jordan and artistic and design researcher Clemens Winkler explore relations between visual interpretations of metabolic formations, biodiversity and new ecologies in art and design. This event is part of OSA’s current exhibition at TA T »Stretching Materialities. Hidden Activities in Objects and Spaces«. Both lecture and artist talk argue that there are not only hidden activities within, but also aesthetic links between objects, technologies and spaces. Throughout history artists have researched and tested the material specificity of objects, technologies and spaces to question old concepts, test new findings, and to broaden perspectives. The notion that not only humans, but also natural and technical objects are entangled through »symbiotic relations«, »processes«, »networks« and »milieus«, inspire both lecture and talk. By looking at examples from art and design and specifically discussing possible synergies between clouds, robots and the sea, this lecture and artist talk seek to highlight synergies between objects, technologies and spaces to contribute to a genealogy of an ecological aesthetic.

Biographies

Anne Duk Hee Jordan

Transience and transformation are the central themes in the work of Anne Duk Hee Jordan. Through movement and performance, Jordan gives materiality another dimension - she builds motorized sculptures and creates edible landscapes. Her sculptures are intended to draw the viewer into the present and open a dialogue between natural phenomena, philosophy and art. Her work is like an interactive fantasy play with the knowledge and theories about the world and our souls. In the absence of concrete knowledge, fantasy runs riot. Jordan opens up doors to a universe where she humorously and romantically creates machines that juxtapose robotic consciousness with organic cyclic decay and life. She asks questions about an »agency« and encourages a change of perspective. She shifts the focus away from humans towards the entire ecology.

https://dukhee.de
https://www.instagram.com/dukhee_/

Babette Marie Werner

Babette Marie Werner is an art historian, especially interested in interdisciplinary approaches in the context of the 20th and 21st centuries dealing with time, space and transformation. Currently she is working on her doctoral thesis on analog and digital (re)stagings of process-based and inter-media art from the late 1950s until today. The focus is put on artist Otto Piene who experimented with weather phenomena, light and slide installations. Werner is based at the Institute of Art and Visual History at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, holding a full scholarship by Gerda Henkel Stiftung. Werner works as a freelance curator and writer and has developed and implemented interdisciplinary exhibitions and publication projects in the field of visual and performing arts for international art institutions including Kunsthalle Mannheim, Munich's Pinakothek der Moderne, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

https://babettewerner.de
https://www.instagram.com/babette_werner/

Clemens Winkler

Clemens Winkler is a Design Researcher who is fascinated by the vulnerability and resilience of materiality in the context of contemporary ecological, sensorial and social concerns. His practice focuses on entrance points into symbolic operations with objects and spaces through ephemeral material processes on various scales, especially water vapour and dust. By examining clouds in density states and intensities of motion, he sets up a vocabulary through forms of capturing, describing, intensifying, and archiving practices and processes. He, for example, puts things in a box to show what cannot be contained and therefore explores the human obsession for controlling the environment. He has taught internationally as a guest lecturer for several years in »Interaction Design« at Zurich University of the Arts, the »Material Futures« Department at Central Saint Martins College London, and the Ernst Busch Academy of Drama Arts Berlin.

https://clemenswinkler.com
https://www.instagram.com/clemens__winkler

MoA | Exhibition at TA T

The exhibition Stretching Materialities. Hidden Activities in Objects and Spaces at Tieranatomisches Theater (TA T) is curated by multidisciplinary scientists and designers of the project Object Space Agency of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

The exhibition was open from September 17th, 2021, to March 4th, 2022.