Interview Performing Data

Performing Data Interview
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Performin Data Interview
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"PERFORMING DATA" INTERVIEW WITH MONIKA FLEISCHMANN & WOLFGANG STRAUSS, BY MICHAL CHACINSKI 2011

The interview (20:21) took place during the solo exhibition "Performing Data" by Monika Fleischmann & Wolfgang Strauss in the historic building of the National Cultural Center, LAZNIA Center for Contemporary Art, Gdansk at the invitation of the director Jadwiga Charzynska. The artists' works were presented on three floors in their development over time. The interview took place against the background of the works "Media Flow" and "Digital Sparks Matrix".
The main questions and comments of the interviewer were: "How can you be sure of the destination of your work? Where do you arrive? In your case, the body seems to come back. Why does the body come back in your work, in spite of all the propaganda about the disappearance of the body in cyberspace"?"

The artists talk about their approach and the discoveries that emerge in their works. They talk about how their research into the underground of the virtual Cyber City uncovered hidden realities, namely the previously unknown murals from the Nazi era, and how they incorporated this reality into the virtuality of Cyber City. They explain the references of their Cyber City Table Top Interface to Hannah Ahrendt's statements about the table as a communicative object in her book Vita Activa, and what insights they gain for their interface design, which they then recognise as a discursive interface.
They also talk about their non-touch interfaces and how through the moment of pointing instead of touching, i.e. the virtual touch reinforcing the sense of touch, touch as a sensory perception can be experienced like a phantom pain. They interpret their experiences with VR as the very thing that brings reality to light and experience it as a labyrinthine process with unexpected endings.
While in the background the media stream flows, hinting at new aspects again and again.