Obieta/Vogel
The collaboration between the designer and artist Fernando Obieta (*1990) and the artist Gregor Vogel (*1993) explores topics surrounding digital art and culture and creates projects concerning with culturally constructed borders between sound and music.
FO Mail GV Mailblinded by the light
2018-2019
Blinded by the light is an installation consisting of multiple interconnected objects placed in public space. By pressing a button on a console, passerbys can access a surveillance camera placed in a tree overseeing a section of a public park or pedestrian zone. On the observed location a line on the ground marks the perimeter which is overseen by the camera. For the time the provided button is pushed, the observed location is illuminated by a spotlight, informing the people there that they are being observed. The audience can choose whether they want to be part of the surveillance system as an observing or an observed subject. Public space is transformed into a stage.
FO GVfor your eyes only
2017
Making use of an algorithm, for your eyes only searches the YouTube database for videos that have no views and have never been watched by anyone, not even the people who uploaded them. There is no record of the videos that are shown within the installation, everything people who enter the booth will see is for their eyes only. An irritation that often occurred was the discrepancy between the audience‘s expectation and what the installation showed to them. Since YouTube is normally used for consuming content that has already gained great attention, it turns out to be confusing to watch content that nobody seems to care about. In times when a large part of a society producing massive amounts of digital data has not consciously experienced an era where the production of image, video or sound was predominantly analog, it gradually becomes more difficult to get a feeling for amounts of data. Previously to the installation of for your eyes only the artists distributed posters in the building offering information on YouTube as a company as well as a database. While the posters layed a rational groundwork, the installation made the sheer amount of (unwatched) data on YouTube tangible on an emotional level.
FO GVHERE / HEAR / WAVE
Ongoing since 2017
Exploring the overlap between concert, performance and sound installation. What constitutes as music? What constitutes as a concert? What is the role of a performer? What is the role of an attendee? Since 2017 Fernando Obieta and Gregor Vogel have been working together on a series of performances concerning with the preceding questions. Each time they have made use of a setup featuring a patch that was built using the programming language Pure Data. A computer is given the ability to compose randomly synthesized tracks consisting of a randomly generated number of acts. Within a few boundaries given by the architects of the patch – the two artists – the computer is able to define parameters like pitch, tempo and length of the individual tones and acts. These sounds are distributed to a variable number of speakers placed in the room. The two collaborating artists influence the sounds through effect pedals, commonly used by musicians, placed in between the computer and the individual speakers. The effects are distortion, modulation effects, delays, reverbs and more. The performing artists and the computer play together in a session, during which neither of the two parties has full power over the other. Not only is not every outlet of the patch active at any given moment, but also does the sound that is played have an influence on how the pedals function. On the other hand, are the performers able to delay or diminish certain activities of the sounds and can thus take influence on the narrative structure. The balance of forces between the program and the artists is over when they decide to end the performance.
FO GV