Prometheus Bound
In the installation Prometheus Bound, 60 biophotovoltaic cells containing local diatoms, green algae, and cyanobacteria are harnessed to generate electricity — barely enough to bring an artificial macroalga "to life."
Presented on the exhibition ship MS Dauerwelle in Bremen alongside the preceding artistic research, the work traces the distance between the promise of a new and clean, growing energy source and the messy reality of working with living organisms. Through the DIY cultivation of algae and the laborious attempt to harvest electricity freed during the photosynthetic process, questions emerge not only about viability but also control, care, and the ethics of instrumentalizing other species.
The accompanying written thesis widens these topics, interrogating the cultural weight of the color green: from the toxic beauty of harmful algal blooms to the plastic moss walls of shopping centers, and what desires and blind spots we encode into the color when we reach for it as a shorthand for nature and sustainability. The thesis further discusses the ever growing human energy needs and our current solutionistic path of technological fixes, the distinction between Umwelten and true Mitwelten, as well as the possibilities and limits of DIY methods when dealing with bioelectrochemical systems.
The thesis and additional material are available on request.
Automated Ritual no.1
Automated Ritual no.1 is a dystopic, mechanical orchestra, sonifying modern stock market data of commodities. The archaic and raw instruments in this orchestra are replicas of Stone Age instruments that were found across Europe and are harnessed and played by contrasting machines and motors. Rituals and the hunt in which the instruments might have been used 7-40 thousand years ago, were replaced by a complex dirty machinery of modern forecast systems and stock market speculations. The goods, the concerned commodities we trade on the other hand, that we deal with and need to survive, haven’t changed a lot.
Exhibited at Chemnitz 2025 - Begehungen Festival, honorable mention Hochschulpreis HFK Bremen 2023
UNDA
In the installation UNDA, our digital communication, the very thing that holds our modern world together, is made physically perceptible. In two basins of black colored water, fine waves, interference patterns or bubbling areas become visible and audible, depending on the data usage (4G) around the installation. The waves are actuated by any upload and download of data from the visitors present, which are measured, converted into audio signals and played on 12 subwoofers in the basins.
Bachelor thesis 2022, Mentored by Prof. Ursula Damm, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
(videolink upon request)
I DON’T SEE YOU
The sculpture is an imitation of a public binocular, which extrapolates out all the people when you look through it. For one day I placed the binoculars at the Bethesda Fountain, a popular photo location for tourists in Central Park, New York and documented the reactions of the public.
A small camera is connected to a RaspberryPi and captures the view. An algorithm trained on human movements (TensorFlow Bodypix) detects the people in the image and replaces them with data previously collected in that image section. This corrupted image is then displayed on a bright monitor that can be seen through Google Cardboard-like optics. Everything is powered by a V-mount battery and is built into a binocular housing made of mirrored plexiglass and 3D-printed parts.
The Binocular is not meant to help create a perfect image, but to question our perception, stereotypical images, and Instagram posts. It is about our relationship to real and non-real spaces and about seeing familiar things in a new way, about our everyday obsession with images - the hunt for the best photo "without the annoying other tourists".
WHAT IS WORTH SEEING?
In a museum, people stop to see an impressionistic painting of a street scene or cool street photography. But will people pause to watch the same scenarios live on the street?
Flatbush Avenue is a busy street running across Brooklyn, provided in its northern course with rarely used benches in the middle of the intersections. For one day I converted one of these absurd benches into a kind of theater auditorium: red cushions, lamp, red carpet and opera glasses. For one day the street became a stage, cars and pedestrians became actors.
