0,5V 0,2mA (And Other Entangled Stories)

Art exhibition at Matjö Raum für Kunst

May 11th 2023 – June 18th 2023

Thus, man has the function of being the constant coordinator and inventor of the machines that are around him. He is in the middle of the machines which act and work with him.
(Gilbert Simondon: The Mode of Existence of Technical Objects, p. 11.)

At first glimpse, the model of the city that visitors can see through the display window in the exhibition space is neither the cast-iron model of a city nor does it come from a 3D printer. It consists of electronic scrap, of countless broken devices that the media artist Gonzalo H. Rodríguez has been collecting and disassembling into individual parts. The destruction has one goal: to let something new emerge.

Rodríguez’s unique technical ensemble recombines the inner life of the various electronic scrap parts that gives contour to a fictitious city: Villa Futuro. In order to let the human and non-human inhabitants of this city of the future have their say, Rodríguez uses augmented reality (AR) technology. During the exploration tour, you can listen to the life story of an abandoned toy robot that becomes a nest for lizard eggs. Or you might come across the potato experiment that the human settlers conduct to generate electricity for the city, which provided the impetus for the exhibition’s title (0,5V 0,2mA).

The generation of electricity is not only essential for the survival of the fictional city dwellers but also reflects the artistic method: The electrical waste is given a new life in the recombination, is recycled, ‘energized’ and thus becomes the engine of a narrative structure that tells speculative stories of a marginal city’s emergence. The visitors are free to choose the point of entry and thus become entangled in a city life that is perhaps not so alien to their own.

-Exhibition text by Dr. Daniela Doutch-

“0,5V 0,2mA (and other entagled stories)” is part of the artistic-scientific Ph.D. project “Villa Futuro” at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf

This exhibition was kindly funded by: