ISEA - Connecting net art and recycling

ISEA is known for its very full program. Such a full program is necessary and nice, but it forces you to make choices. It is impossible to see all the lectures at ISEA. During this afternoon however I am not able to choose. There are two lectures where I would like to go, but I am giving a lecture myself at the same time.

The lecture can only be fifteen minutes long, including questions and answers. So I have prepared a presentation which contains just the essential information and still gets to the point where I want to get.

I am not sure though if the outcome of my research really makes sense to the people in the audience. I was talking about the relation between my work as a recycling artist and my work as a net artist, but when my presentation is finished, all the questions that are asked are about the art center which I started in a small village in Austria some years ago.

Well, maybe this small art initiative is the outcome of my work combining net art and recycling.

I didn't prepare a presentation about the art initiative, I just mentioned it briefly in the talk. But no matter all the theoritical research that I tried to put together in my talk, the old farm was what fascinated the audience the most. Maybe my lecture made as little sense to them as many of the other talks of the previous days made to me....

ISEA - A day of nonhuman performativity

The symposium in Essen continued with a morning about nonhuman performativity, followed by a motion lab, which turned out to be a set of lectures just like the other days. ISEA is a symposium of lectures. That's what it is, that's what it is supposed to be and that's what it will always be.

Luckily there are enough breaks inbetween the talks to get in touch with other participants in a more informal way. During the lunch break I had a very nice meeting in which I learned that it is actually very easy to recycle old paper into new paper all by yourself. All you need is a blender, a pan and a plate of metal with small holes in it, similar like the screen to put in a window to prevent insects from flying in.

There was no time to write down the instructions, since the next session was starting already. But instead of spending also the afternoon in the room with lectures, I went for a walk outside. I took the back door from the restaurant and climbed up the metal stairs that happened to be there. It was the best decision I could have made. Suddenly I found myself in an amazing structure of metal stairs, bridges, cables and buildings. It wasn't until then, that I discovered the amazing area of the Zollverein. Wandering around this industrial jungle made my mind float away much further than any of the lectures had managed to do that morning...