FLICK_KA /// 2007 /// Interactive User Installation /// Peter Weibel, Matthias Gommel
In former times, the privilege of having pictures made for them remained the preserve of the religious and political elite. Artistic experts and social elites shared the monopoly in the production of pictures. Only the select few were able to afford a picture. Since the invention of photography in the 19th century and, more especially, the carte-de-visite photography (photographic portraits in small format) by A. A. E. Disdéri, in the year 1854, everything changed. In the age of photography everyone was able to take photographs and everyone could have their photograph taken! Photography is a democratic picture medium in contrast to the aristocratic picture medium of painting. On the occasion of “Ten years of ZKM in Hall A”, the ZKM has honored this democratic promise of photography by inviting the citizens of the city of Karlsruhe and all visitors to be represented on a portrait in the museum. Anyone can be represented in the museum with a work of art, with a picture of himself or with a picture of his choice. The museum becomes a civic forum in which and for whom everything is equal. The consumer becomes producer, the visitor becomes content of the museum. This is possible by the museum entering into an alliance with the internet. FLICK_KA is an art project along the lines of the favorite Portal flickr.com. You can either create your picture by means of the passport photo machine installed at the ZKM and, through this have it put on the online gallery FLICK_KA, or via the internet platform www.zkm.de/flick_ka, feed your picture into the ZKM’s online gallery. As part of the ZKM_Collection you will then be permanently exhibited in the exhibition space as a large format projection in alternating intervals of one second as well as on the net.
Matthias Gommel (*1970 in Leonberg) is a free-lance media artist and, since 2000, Associated Artist at the ZKM | Karlsruhe. As co-founder of the artist group robotlab, he develops robotics installations in which industrial robots appear as autonomous performers in art spaces. In his multimedia installations, he combines conceptual with documentary methods and reflects socio-political, technological and ecological themes. www.robotlab.de
Peter Weibel (*1944 in Odessa) In addition to his activity as an artist and curator, he became internationally recognized through his writings on art and media theory. Weibel has taught at numerous universities in Austria, Germany and in the USA and, in 1989, founded the Institute for New Media in Frankfurt/Main. As Art Director of Ars Electronica in Linz, which curated the Austrian contribution to the Venice Biennale from 1993 to 1999, he has been director of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe since January 1999. He received the title of Honorary Doctor of the University of Art and Design Helsinki in January 2007.
Idea: Peter Weibel installation concept and design: Matthias Gommel Programming: Arne Graesser, Derek Hauffen, Julian Koschwitz, Nikolaus Völzow
Photo: Matthias Gommel
Peter Weibel/Matthias Gommel, FLICK_KA, 2007, interactive user installation, photofix booth, 5 monitors and projection, ZKM_Collection
