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Photo: © Pauline Manet

Projekt Title: DAS VERGERAET – QUEL VOCABULAIRE

Prix Ars Electronica 2014
Honorary Mention for »Das Vergerät«
»DAS VERGERÄT QUEL VOCABULAIRE«

Performative Skulptur und Soundscape /
Performative sculpture and soundscape

100 Haushaltsgeräte, Aluminium, Kabel, elektronische Steuergeräte, Mikrofone, Megafon, Kopfhörer, Monitor, Computer
B 2 m, H 3 m, T 2 m /
100 houshold appliances, aluminium, cables, electronic controls, microphones, megaphone, headphones, monitor, computer
W 2 m, h 3 m, d 2 m /


Festival MICRO MACRO France
VIA: 13th – 23rd March 2014, Le Manège, Maubeuge
EXIT: 27th of march – 13rd of April 2014, Maison des Arts de Créteil, Créteil, Paris
Lille 3000: 21st of May – 14th of September 2014, Gare St. Sauveur, Lille

Arte
Arte Creativ

Mit Arbeiten von / With works from:
ANTIVJ - FRANCE, PHILIPPE DECOUFLÉ - FRANCE, HEATHER DEWEY-HAGBORG - USA, HIROTO IKEUCHI - JAPON, TOM KOK & BRITT HATZIUS - PAYS BAS, ROYAUME-UNI, ALAIN JOSSEAU - FRANCE, RYOICHI KUROKAWA - JAPON,
CHARLOTTE LÉOUZON - FRANCE, MSHR - USA
CARSTEN NICOLAI - ALLEMAGNE, TERREFORM ONE - USA, BERNDT OPPL - AUTRICHE, BORIS PETROVSKY - ALLEMAGNE,
ANNE ROQUIGNY - FRANCE, CANDAS SISMAN - TURQUIE, KRIS VERDONCK - BELGIQUE

Production: MAC Créteil, Georg Nagel, Nina Martens (stereomorph.net), Boris Petrovsky

www.maccreteil.com/fr/studio/event/259/exposition-micro-macro
www.maccreteil.com/fr/studio/work/225/das-vergerat-quel-vocabulaire


»DAS VERGERÄT QUEL VOCABULAIRE««

"L'homme se fait servir par l'aveugle matière.
Il pense, il cherche, il crée ! A son souffle vivant
Les germes dispersés dans la nature entière
Tremblent comme frissonne une forêt au vent!"
Victor Hugo, du: Les voix intérieures


»Das Vergerät« addresses the relationship between humans and machines, technology as social construction and its visual, metaphorical and verbal language. Visitors can initiate communication via software; the message is translated by the interconnected blenders, coffee grinders, espresso machines, vaccuum cleaners, microwaves, drilling machines, electric toothbrushes, shaving machines, hair dryers, drying hoods, vacuum devices, knives, shavers, epilators, knife sharpeners, massage machines, ventilators, fan heaters, high pressure cleaners, floor and car polishers, lawnmowers, leaf blowers, chain saws etcetera and repeated in machine idiom. The strong physical presence of the appliances and their processes triggered by the software lead to the hidden or non-addressed aspects of technology in daily life, which are usually covered up by the fancy, colorful product design of their interface. They transform surroundings and realm domesticities into technotopical spaces. And they become body and speech organ extensions of the 'users'.
»Das Vergerät« (neologism, German) means something like »dis-appliance«. 100 used electric household appliances are interconnected and spatially configurated as a Meta-Machine or Meta-Appliance or as a model of smart homes.
100 is an average number of appliances one can find in a middleclass houshold.

If 'users' put in a spoken message up to 10 seconds into a microphone, the appliances repeat it with their noises, respectively they try to do so. What kind is the understanding between men and machine? Is an understanding possible? The phrases of the 'users' become commands that let the appliances run, controled by the timbre of their voice and the speech melodie of a spoken message and selected by the phonemes. The words of a message and the content become a 'significant' control without a controlable meaning. At the same time the messages will be repeated by a speech synthesis based on the appliances's noises. When they start to run and repeat the users message, it is like that they confirm a command in repeating it. Then the air gets mechanically mixed, cut, grinded, sucked, compressed, blowed, drilled, rolled, stired up, vibrated, heated up and cooled by the appliances while consuming electric power. The human voice is translated in machine's idiom and at the same moment 'incarnated' by the appliances.



“Wesen und Dinge sind übrigens miteinander verbunden und nehmen in dieser heimlichen Übereinkunft eine Innigkeit, einen affektiven Wert an, den man überkommenerweise als ihre ›Präsenz‹ bezeichnet. Was die Tiefe des Elternhauses auszeichnet, sein Erfülltsein mit Erinnerungen veranschaulicht, beruht offensichtlich auf dieser komplexen Struktur der Verinnerlichung, in welcher die Gegenstände vor unseren Augen eine symbolische Konfiguration annehmen, die man als das Zuhause bezeichnet.”
Jean Baudrillard, »Das Ding und das Ich: Gespräch mit der täglichen Umwelt«, Wien, 1974


Sprachliche Artikulation wird zu einem elektromotorischen Vorgang der 100 Geräte, das “Einsprechen” einer Botschaft in der Skulptur zum sprachperformativen “Gerätemanagement”, das die Geräte zur Sprachsynthese der Botschaft über ihre Geräusche antreibt.
Die Installation repetiert die eingesprochenen Botschaften der 'User' und übersetzt sie in den Dialekt der Geräte.

PDF zum downloaden: (sorry, text is only in German language available)