"ADA" ist, ähnlich wie Tinguelys «Méta-Matics», ein Kunstwerk mit Seele. Es agiert selber. Bei Tinguely genügte es sich als unermüdlich abstrampelndes mechanisches Wesen selbst. Er nahm es mit Humor, dass die Maschine nichts anderes, als seine industrielle Selbstzerstörung produzierte. «ADA» hingegen ist ein postindustrielles Geschöpf, eine durch den Antrieb der Besucher kreativ schöpfende Künstler-Skulptur, ein selbst-schaffendes Kunstwerk von Karina Smigla-Bobinski, das einem silicon-carbon-hybrids, etwa aus der Nano-Biotechnologie ähnelt. Diese entwickelt genau solche rotierende Silicon-Carbon-Hybride, miniaturkleine Werkzeugmaschinen, die einfache Strukturen erzeugen können.
«ADA» ist sehr viel größer, ästhetisch auch komplexer, eine interaktive Art-Making-Machine, die mit Helium aufgefüllt, frei im Raum schwebt, eine durchsichtige, membranartige Kugel, bespickt mit Stacheln aus Kohlestücken. Sie hinterlassen an den Wänden, Decke und Boden Spuren, die «ADA» durch den Anstoß ihrer Besucher selbstständig produziert, was der Kugel eine Aura der Lebendigkeit und ihren schwarze Strichen den Anschein von zeichenhafter Bedeutung verleiht.
Die in Aktion versetzte Kugel stellt eine Komposition aus Linien und Punkten her, die in Intensität, Expressivität und Strichverlauf unberechenbar sind, obwohl sich der Besucher alle Mühe geben darf, «ADA» zu lenken, sie zu zähmen und zu beherrschen. Was immer er mit ihr anstellt, er wird sehr bald merken, dass «ADA» eine selbstständige Performerin ist, die die anfangs weißen Wände mit Zeichen übersät und ein faszinierendes, immer komplizierteres Liniengefüge entstehen lässt. Es ist visuell erfahrbar gemachte Bewegung, die wie ein Computer durch einen einmal eingegebenen Befehl selbstständig einen unvorhersehbaren Output erzeugt. Nicht umsonst erinnert «ADA» an Ada Lovelace, die im 19. Jahrhundert zusammen mit Charles Babbage die Vorstufe eines ersten Computers entwickelte. Babbage lieferte die Rechenmaschine und Lovelace die erste Software. Es kam zu einer Symbiose von Mathematik und dem «romantischen Erbe» ihres Vaters Lord Byron. Ada Lovelace wollte eine Maschine, die im Stande wäre, Kunstwerke, etwa Poesie, Musik oder Bilder, zu schaffen wie ein Künstler. «ADA» von Karina Smigla-Bobinski steht in genau dieser Tradition und der von Vannevar Bush, der 1930 eine Memex Maschine (Memory Index) baute («We wanted the memex to behave like the intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain») oder das Jacquard-Webstuhls, der, um Blumen und Blätter zu weben, nur eine Lochkarte benötigte, oder Babbages «Analytischen Maschine», die algorythmische Muster extrahierte.
«ADA» entstand im heutigen Geist der Biotechnologie, eine lebendige Performance-Maschine, deren Linienmuster mit der Zahl der Mitwirkenden komplexer wird und gleichsam Erinnerungsspuren hinterlässt, die weder die Künstlerin, die Besucher, geschweige denn «ADA» entziffern kann. Trotzdem ist Ihr Werk unverkennbar ein potenziell menschliches, weil als einziges Dekodierungsverfahren dieser Zeichen die Assoziation zur Verfügung steht, die unserem Hirn am meisten entspricht - wenn es schläft: die Wildheit unserer Träume.
© Arnd Wesemann 2011
Presse (enlisch/spanisch)
> A Giant Bouncing Ball That Draws On Every Wall It Touches by James Gaddy > Fast Company's Co.Design
"The sculpture's name, Ada, references Ada Lovelace, who, in the 19th century, wrote a series of notes to Charles Babbage about his idea for an “analytical engine."
Some interactive, kinetic sculptures, like Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project or Roman Ondák’s Measuring the Universe, require the viewer to also help complete it. Others, like AnL Studio’s Lightwave, interact in order to take on anthropomorphic, animated qualities. Well, Karina Smigla-Bobinski’s Ada, an interactive sculpture that was a hit at the recently closed the Electronic Language International Festival in Sao Paulo, which ended on Sunday, does both.
The Ada – analog interactive installation is a transparent helium balloon about three feet in diameter with 300 charcoal sticks stuck on the balloon, each about 10 inches apart, using a technique that Smigla-Bobinski developed especially for this artwork. What people do when they come into contact with the floating, membrane-looking spiked globe as it floats around the gallery space is where it gets interesting.
In the video above, some people approach the orb gingerly; other times they grab the charcoal sticks like handles and try to bend it to their will. Some people bounce it around like a beach ball at a baseball game. About halfway through, an old man tries to actually draw something, only to have it wrestled away by the laws of physics. Every time it hits the wall, the charcoal scratches its mark along the walls, turning the alien-looking, transparent membrane into an automatic art-making machine. In this, the sculpture references her namesake, Ada Lovelace, who, in the 19th century, wrote a series of notes related to a paper on her friend Charles Babbage’s “analytical engine,” i.e., computer, which they hoped would also make works of art as well.
Smigla-Bobisnki hints that she's fine with not necessarily even knowing the extent of what she's created: “What here is exactly the work of art?" she wrote in an email to me. Ada? Or the drawing on the wall? ... Or both?” What she begins, the audience completes, and the result is an interesting look at the balance of power in what is essentially a rigged collaboration. “Once you set her into motion, she just works away,” Smigla-Bobinski continues. “The blacker she gets from the charcoal and the more she is handled by visitors, the more she seems to be some kind of alive. Even I, who built her, sometimes gets the illusion of her being a living thing.”
> Robots and Avatars Exhibition Review by Josie Jenkins > Art in Liverpool
"The premise for this exhibition lends itself well to interactive art and it was no surprise that the most easily accessible interactive artworks were the most popular with the public. For me, ADA by Karina Smigla-Bobinski, was by far the most fun and clever piece of art I’ve seen for a long time. It is a huge helium filled membrane like globe, with charcoal pieces attached at regular intervals. Referred to as a ‘she’, with her own free will, ADA floats around the room drawing on the walls and ceiling with her charcoal sticks. The viewer can interact with ADA by pushing and spinning her into the walls and together beautiful abstract drawings are created, made up of Cy Twombly style dots and dashes. Some may say the obvious choice, but I think this artwork is truly inspired in concept and practice alike and a must see (or do). (...)"
> Analogue Is the New Digital in 'ADA,' and Interactive Installation by Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg > The Atlantic
"ADA is an analogue interactive installation made of a giant ball filled with helium, covered in charcoal spikes. As the ball drifts around the space, charcoal marks accumulate on the walls. Visitors can push the ball around the space freely, but the results are never predictable. (...)"
> ADA-analoge interactive installation by Régine Debatty > we-make-money-not-art.com
"Quick introduction words about the FILE, the Electronic Language International Festival that takes place in São Paulo this Summer. As usual, the event mixes and matches immersive installations, animations movies, performances, machinimas, besides works of web art, documentary, and other goodies you expect from this ambitious new media art festival. This year, however, i've been particularly blown away by the least techy works in the exhibition.
I'll come back to them in the coming days in a more generous report but i'd like to kick off my reports from the festival with a short post about ADA - analog interactive installation, by Karina Smigla-Bobinski. (...)"
> FILE festival - the installations by Régine Debatty > we-make-money-not-art.com
"(...) If you happen to be in or around Sao Paulo this Summer (or Winter, i was told it is Winter over here but super sunny and 25 degrees Celsius is no credible Winter to me) don't miss FILE, the Electronic Language International Festival that takes place at the FIESP Cultural Center and all over the Avenida Paulista till late August. And because FILE makes it its duty to attract the general public and not just the art&tech aficionados, the event is not only free but also packed with surprising installations, games, videos and events. (...) But somehow, i felt that the winners of this edition of FILE were the works showing little or no technology. I already mentioned ADA - analog interactive installation but there were more surprises in store ... Such as Shrink, Lawrence Malstaf's dependable crowd-pleaser. (...)"
> Artist's charcoal-studded helium balloon creates mysterious wall drawings by Olivia Solon > Wired
"Artist Karina Smigla-Bobinski has created an installation comprised of an enormous, helium-filled balloon with a hedgehog-like coating of charcoal sticks trapped inside a room.
The balloon floats around the room, leaving charcoal marks on the white walls as it bounces from wall to wall. The piece, called Ada, is being exhibited at the FILE festival in Sao Paulo. (...) Resembling some sort of molecular hybrid, the transparent globe bobs around the room seemingly autonomously. Visitors can push the sphere around the room and watch it react to the external impetus. (...)"
> ADA, Um Balão De Hélio Criativo by Natasha Felizi > thecreatorsproject.com
"A história de Ada Lovelace comove corações nerds: é mulher; matemática; nobre e, na melhor tradição do ultraromantismo de seu pai, era fraca e doente. Sabemos que ela inventou o primeiro algorítimo para computadores e podemos chamá-la de a namoradinha dos programadores. Não sem justificativa, há muitas homenagens à condessa dos números na produção artístico-tecnológica que costumamos louvar. Exemplos: Ada 2.0b, de Jeraman e ADA – analogue interactive installation de Karina Smigla-Bobinski, exposta no FILE. (...)"
Mit freundlicher unterstützung von Hochhinaus Luftwerbegesellschaft mbH > www.hochhinaus.de
Links
> FILE Festival in Sao Paulo, Brasilien
> FILE Fotos
> FAD Festival in Belo Horizonte, Brasilien
> FAD Fotos
> Robots&Avatars Projekt
> FACT Liverpool, UK
> FACT Fotos
> Robots and Avatars Ausstellung auf BBC
> BBCClick Fotos
> FILE Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilien
> FILE Fotos
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