kerstin ergenzinger (de)
STUDY FOR LONGING / SEEING, 2008
- Polymer foam, carbon, muscle-wire®, self-built Lehman seismograph, geophone, and custom electronics.
The overall basis for Kerstin Ergenzinger’s kinetic installation is a continuous observation of natural phenomena. Her works relate to their spatial surroundings and to sense-based cognition. Technology is used to render visible that which we rarely notice in nature. The works simulate the movements and cycles of nature, and at the same time the presence of an audience is always a crucial factor for the completion of her works.
A mountain-like landscape pulsating as if alive. This is what Kerstin Ergenzinger presents her audience with as they encounter the work Study for longing/seeing. The work is a reactive installation using data from seismographs and sensor-based structures to simulate a landscape and its changes.
The installation responds partly to movements in the earth outside the exhibition building, and partly to audience movements in the exhibition room itself. It establishes, then, a mutual transfer of sensory impressions between the two sensing entities: human beings and the work of art. The earth is an organism which lives its own life, but is affected by the presence of human beings. In other words: As we ‘touch’ and sense the mountain, we change it.
Slide mechanics and Muscle-Wire sponsored by igus GmbH and Dynalloy, Inc.
about Kerstin Ergenzinger (b.1975)
Kerstin Ergenzinger was born in Reutlingen, Germany. She was educated at the Universität der Künste, Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln in Berlin, and Chelsea College of Art and Design in London.
Kerstin Ergenzinger deals with the border between reality and constructed reality. Her work is based on the view that human perception of reality builds on stability and pragmatism, and that we will always attempt to maintain a simple understanding of the world. It is this view on the world she wants to challenge with her work. Kerstin Ergenzinger works with kinetic installations, visual arts and video, and she has exhibited in London, Berlin and Köln among others.