Noise Reduction (proposal)
In Sesto Prize
collaboration with Markus Wüste
promoted by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, the City of San Vito al Tagliamento (Pordenone) and the University of Udine (I)
2020

The outdoor sculpture ‚Noise Reduction‘ shows a dog in original size, which is strongly pixelated. It consists of about 800 cubes of stone. From a distance it is a familiar sight to see the shape of a dog in the park. Only when you approach it, you can see that the dog is a sculpture made from cubes, like a pixelated picture that is not yet fully uploaded or has been intentionally anonymized. The pixelated dog comes out of the digital world and is transferred to analog reality. It embodies something virtual, dematerialized, and has its right to exist through its physical presence involving gravity and material properties. The park is completing the picture; at the same time the sculpture makes the surrounding space a part of the artwork. The dog is like an apparition, a spirit that is just about to materialize, completing itself into a high-resolution three-dimensional image. The dog is a breed of man, from the wild pack animal of the wolf, to the friend, helper, playmate and subordinate receiver of man’s commands. Man has created the perfect companion by transforming nature. The world in which we live is now largely a redesigned nature, shaped according to our needs.

We live in an unnatural, man-made world. The artificiality culminates in the creation of the digital world. Nowadays, work is increasingly done on the computer. In private life, too, social media are more and more replacing actual personal encounters. Palimpsest stands for us for a modification and artificialization of our environment, for the overwriting of a world that is progressively mediated through digital media. This is especially happening now in this difficult time of pandemic, in which physical contact is avoided. Seminars at universities take place online. Exhibitions are communicated virtually. Grandparents see their grandchildren via Skype. Personal conversations are replaced by shortened What‘s App messages. The pixelated dog creates a bizarre image in everyday life. It makes no sense: what do we want with a dog that cannot be stroked and that does not greet us joyfully? But isn‘t it an exacerbation of a situation with which we have already come to terms?