“btd x” by Claudia Westermann, Sean Reed

Title:

btd x

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Artist Statement:

btd x is an experimental video composition – a study of the concept “model”. The artists worked with surface and space, playing with concepts of reality in three scenes.

As an example of possible connections between sound and image, the artists had software at their disposal whose basis on physical modeling allowed sound to be constructed and a simultaneous visualization of this sound to be observed – a representation of the fundamentally responsible structures over time. This principle of sound and image production served as the impetus for the development of an artistic project which united both the elements of sound and image while presenting parameters for a creative process in which each element would only receive justification for its presence through its relationship to the other. The images to be seen and the sounds to be heard are the result of this virtually symbiotic process.

A thematic complex was chosen to serve as a further structural principle: surface and space, layers and rows, the opposition of the artificial with an assumed reality. Detailed work with the physical models led to a questioning of the concept of reality, of framework models and of complexity.

Although sound and image were subject to constant change by the influence of the other element, each of the elements tells its own story and is based on the biography of the individual.

Contributors:

Claudia WESTERMANN (image), Sean REED (audio)

Actors:
– a courtyard facade in Karlsruhe, Germany
– various architectural models on the scale of 1 :100
– line animations fmm the physical models created with the software

Genesis by the ACROE institute in Grenoble
– Nik Haffner (Frankfurt Ballet)

The work was created in August of 2000 at the Center for Art and Media Technology (ZKM) in Karlsruhe. Completion of the revised version October 2000.