being an artist working
with digital media always means being critical with the own medium, not
because I dislike it but as I want to now what it is actually. recently
I see a change coming up, there is a change within technology – for the
producer and the consumer.
I know I am not the first but I am a little proud to have brought or used
cgi in artworks, I still think it looks good and works conceptually. my
work has always been playful but also being critical on media. I predicted
a shift from democracy to ‘mediacracy’, as you can tell people what to
think (and chose) by picking what they see and consume. when a.i.-generated
content hit web 2.0 (known as ‘social media’) things just accelerated.
screens and timelines with imagery that is just pooped out, generative
production without preproduction, realism upon nonsense, the end of believe,
evidence and truth. it believed to be progressive to read a text which
had not even been ‘thought’ by another human being, how weird is this?
I did not see this coming when I felt clever creating a word like ‘mediacracy’.
this is the change for the consumer, he or she has not chance to understand,
to discuss, to question, it is too much, too bad, spreading nothingness
with the frequency of a machine gun.
all of this fell into the age of digitalisation, a promise given thirty
years ago saying that everything gets better when replaced by digital
advices. the promised land was never reached but brought some new problems,
on-going software updates and frequently bought devices (made of materials
from questionable origin) to be still able to run software that makes
updates to keep working. digitalization is no a bad thing at all: microsoft
word is a great digital version of a typewriter, but it should not
be confused with a teacher underlining false words with a red line as
you do not learn from your mistakes. it enabled the creator who could
still change back to the typewriter, it did not try to replace the creator
or force him into dependency. even in the digital age we must be aware
of the tool´s purpose the use it properly and not get lost in a meaningless
activity that is believed to be contemporary. we get dependent (maybe
addictive) to rented software enabling our job, art or everyday tasks.
recently, we experience maxon ´s rising price policy and client
annoying decisions, and where do we go when the machine stops and your
tool is taken away from you? (some of my colleagues and me believe that
there is a change, maxon seems to be in need of money while adobe
already has a foot in the door, I guess they might swallow maxon one day
the swallowed macromedia two decades ago and c4d will be added
to the suite becoming digital folklore.)
there is a flood of digital production on the one hand and a reduction
of available software on the other – so what do we do with it?
matthias danberg an me discuss these topics from time to time, he went
back to painting (also using a.i. to play around with variations of a
sketched motif) as a cgi is no longer reasonable concerning investment
in time and money as well as perception of a fed-up audience. I have to
find answers myself, how can I make a video reflecting itself, telling
something about its depth in a time that it is lost? how can I be critical
on a.i. without producing stereotypes? what is the core of a moving image?
I am still deeply frustrated about these developments but I guess we must
work with it develop an perspective as artists. so we are little bit like
the ‘pre-raphaelite brotherhood of the digital postmodern age (of a.i.)’,
a digital movement that is vivid and productive, well knowing that things
fall apart after a certain point. apart from this I got a little bit bored
of cgi and its aesthetics, it came up in the claerbout show. the work
looks good, but cgi has a cerain plastic look you cannot get rid of, merging
it wit a.i. might make it better but generates another conceptual question:
why are we sustaining images or a world which is more and more simulation?
how can we label the simulation hypothesis as science fiction while we
consider a shift into simulated imagery and text as progressive?
this year I will finish two big video pieces to be added to the portfolio:
‘little dance of fourteen years (posing/refusing)’ is an endless variation
of cgi generated scenes, testing the limits of what I can do here. this
work has been started back in 2020 and the machine rendering it has become
out-dated even before the opus maximus was released. (even back in 2020
I was reporting about license issues while working on this piece, see
2020-09-24 these ‘campfire headphase’ days
will end soon | update 2020-10-07) the other work ‘suspended animation’
is still in progress mashing up footages of different origins dealing
with the issues I have brought up in the paragraph above. as an artist
I am still not done yet.
here are some dry orchids, they are still beautiful in this state but
I do not really know how to photograph them. this is an image with two
ends: I just copied the imagery of laurent montaron´s ‘pace’ and build
a connection to an upcoming music video: I have finally used footage I
did back in 2017 when I was hanging out on the couch with a broken leg,
I was filming the orchids with my phone and I always wanted to use the
material in a great way, well, here we go.
berto herrera preformed in front of david claerbout’s ‘aircraft (f.a.l.)’
piece at konschthal esch for a ‘slow thursday’. this created exactly the
image I would love to create while playing with record of tides at mudam
or konschthal in front of a great work. I am still trying to make things
happen, but I feel that it might be also okay to concentrate on production
and the aspects of a project that a mostly joyful for the creator.
matthias and me did our first classic for 2026 to discuss personal issues
and world politics (and how these things are connected) we might get older
and more calm but like most of us we feel that the first weeks of 2026
are enough and we would like to do a straight shift to 2027. my experiences
shows that years can get great, especially when they start so bad. but
hey, I cannot promise anything.
a classic picture: in 2017 I participated in the laser-biathlon challenge
at the medl wintergrillen at ruhrauen, in the years afterwards I did not
really feel fit enough to do it so we skipped the langlauf
for sausage and crepes and just do the shooting. surprisingly, I am still
a good shooter, even knowing that the challenge is to shoot with a high
pulsed pumping heart. so keep this in mind while seeking an argument with
me…
on of michi´s friends had tickets for wildes holz playing in essen´s
philharmonie but couldn’t attend to that date so we got the tickets, it
sounds like a joke that I was offered two more tickets from more people
who could not attend. however, wildes holz is a phenomenon, the
pure joy of music presented in a show full of humour and instrumental
perfection. when we went there, I was not really into it, after some bad
day I was not in the mood to see people, especially the upper-class cultural
audience. wildes holz did their program and nailed it, no single
second of boredom and the evidence that all music is beautiful. the raw
beauty of music sometimes grabs me pretty deep inside encouraging me to
do even more stuff far apart from what is known as mainstream. wildes
holz, again and again.
to say thank you for the tickets michi bought a ‘klassiker live’ double
cd and had it signed by the band making her feel like a little girl asking
for an autograph from someone known from tv. I´ll keep a digital version
being a fan of flute live looping and every interpretation of ‘ave maria’.
opn´s ‘tranquilizer’ sent a little wave of ecstasy through the
music world. lopatin said, if you like this, wait until you hear what
we did for ‘marty supreme’. I was curious and I was waiting for the release
to come up digitally on boxing day, bought it on bleep and put it on my
phone to take it with me to the kirchberg. ‘tranquilizer’ is a good piece
but needs some time to be fully understood as it has its very own approach
to sampling, sound and rhythm. the ‘marty surpreme’ soundtrack is impressive
but is not as easy to listen to as it appears fragmented by scenes without
score. I was even more surprised to see photos of score listening events
with people sitting in front of speakers enjoying a score without knowing
the movie. more hype is not possible.
this is impressive, lopatin started as a nerdy boy with a synth, releasing
on his own indie label to be picked up by trent reznor to open after soundgarden
for nine inch nails. (how do things like these come to happen!?)
the alternative rock touring experience inspired ‘garden of delete’, his
second album on warp and became producer sidekick for the weeknd.
after opening his sound to whatever genre or source and scoring independent
movies, things scale up putting the recent score on the oscar´s shortlist
and doing online lectures.
lopatin´s success is well deserved as he appears honest, busy and his
musical output full of integrity. it is great to watch a nerd being successful
with just doing what he his doing. this is my illusion, of course, to
believe that a big career success is waiting for me by just doing the
weird stuff I do. is his biography a blueprint for mine or just the proof
that this career is happening to one in a million?
update 2026-02-08: it took two attempts to visit the ruins of the
isenburg with my mother. I had mistaken a path through the bushes
for the official way to reach it, so we looked quite ridiculous for other
people walking by. when we finally made it she was not really impressed
by the ruins´ walls surrounding us while I was annoyed by stupid techno
music sounding over the hills from a big party with location unknown.
however, we both enjoyed the view over the baldeney lake. I never get
bored of the region I live in.
update 2026-02-08: we made a quick visit to the restaurant surrounding
the kluse chapel for some coffee and cake. I was surprised to find
the kluse inaccessible surrounded by a building site. let´s check
later again what is happening here, take care of this gem!
update 2026-02-08: yesterday might have been the first day supposed
to be called ‘pre-spring’, sunny and warm enough to take a walk and sit
outside in a café. I really love sitting in the café grossartig
in heißen watching the church. nothing gives you a stronger illusion of
a dutch experience: being in the netherlands, having a coffee and a cake
and watch people passing by while having no fixed plans at all. while
you put all your duties and sorrows aside, your brian comes up with some
ideas and solutions without forcing it. well, this isn´t but it is a close
as possible.
update 2026-02-08: a long saturday filled with work and duties
ended with a rave: local underground superstar chris clarinova
(frühling
in frohnhausen) invited to a public rehearsal at frohnzimmer
performing some acid house making me feel that its 2006 again. he surprised
a few times with a mixture of musical ambition and humour turning the
calm guy into a real stage hog. he announced three tracks only preforming
for just 30 minutes and nailed it. it was great to be in this strange
living room dancing among people with kent granyon, watching chris taking
off the jacket to unveil a pink shirt and sunglasses at night, a hypercool
tongue in the cheek. a perfect saturday night for the older guys, having
a beer, dance in an underground location to an underground artist and
getting home before 9 pm.
sven piayda | get you the moon
OPEN HOUSE: KUNSTSZENE GELSENKIRCHEN
kunstmuseum gelsenkirchen, gelsenkirchen
2026-02-22 - 2026-04-26
opening 2026-02-22,
12 pm
kunstmuseum-gelsenkirchen.de/ausstellungen/
open-house-kunstszene-gelsenkirchen
kunstmuseum-gelsenkirchen.de
horster str. 5-7
D-45897 gelsenkirchen
sven
piayda | beachball
COLLABORATIVE FUTURES
gmünder kunstverein/galerie im kornhaus
schwäbisch gmünd
2025-12-05 – 2025-02-01
gmuender-kunstverein.de
collaborativefutures.online/de/kurzfilm-galerie
gmünder kunstverein e.v.
kornhausstraße 14
schwäbisch gmünd
sven piayda | mff40
WIDERBORSTIGES PUBLIZIEREN - 40 JAHRE MFF
museum für fotokopie, mülheim an der ruhr
2025-05-15 – 2025-06-29 (still on display)
opening 2025-05-15, 6 pm
museum-fotokopie.de
>>>
listen to klaus urbons: die geschichte des museums für fotokopie
(2025) at radio makro archive
friedrich-ebert-straße 48
45468 mülheim an der ruhr
sven piayda | aftermath
KURZstummfilmfestival
zeche carl, essen / youtube, worldwide
2020-09-26, 3pm at zeche carl
2020-09-25 on youtube
kurz-stumm-filmfestival.de
'aftermath'
on youtube
youtube.com
facebook.de/kurzstummfilmfestival
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