nachwirken

2023, interactive videoinstallation, joint project with Basti Paintner

The interactive video installation Nachwirken (after-effect) explores Lausitz - a region which is shaped by coal mining and is additionally highly charged politically. In doing so, the work explores three dimensions of this place: the temporal dimension, the spatial dimension and the dimension of narration. The project aims to provide a way to grasp the complexity of the human relationship to the earth and its resources (using Lausitz as an example) and invites people to reflect on the interactions between past, present and future via documentation and speculation. How close are we humans to nature? What distinguishes nature and culture? What effects do human interventions, both in the past and today, have on our present and future?

Google Earth images of parts of Lausitz from each year of the last 40 years (1980 - 2020) run continuously on a screen / projection. When a person reaches a certain distance in front of the screen, this distance is detected by an ultrasound sensor and the video zooms out of the open-cast mine to a rotating globe. With the globe in the background, 'breaking news' is displayed in a random order. These messages are partly excerpts from real news and partly speculative news reports. When the person moves away from the screen, the video zooms back in to a time-lapse video of Lausitz's past.