Research, Curatorial Practice and Writing
Art and Measurement (2012-)
This is a research project engages the theme “Art & Measurement” and attempts to creatively link imagination, affect and on going transformation in measurement. It addresses the ambivalence of measurement and measurability in contemporary realities, and experiments with different concepts of measurement from the positions of arts.
We are surrounded by practices of measurement. Every day, we read and hear about astronomically big numbers, or unimaginable small figures through which the financial crisis as well as environmentally hazardous catastrophes are explained. Those measurements directly penetrate our life and death, and the world of being and becoming. Recent philosophical discussions around aesthetics question the limits of scientific logic, and suggest profound changes around measurement today. These arguments introduced two perspectives: one is biopolitical governance by ontopower (Brian Massumi, Maurizio Lazzarato, Tiziana Terranova, Patricia T. Clough) and the other is market speculation and affects of branding (Christine Harold, Steven Goodman, Luciana Parisi). Following these discussions, the project asks: what do those scientific measurements in numbers, digits, codes and diagrams actually tell us? How do acts of measuring function and influence our world? How does this effect the production of the social? Infusing with a positive spirit of dilettantism in order to make inspiring and novel imaginations on measurement possible, my investigation on Art & Measurement takes form not only in reading, writing and thinking, but also conversing, scrabbling, touching objects, and feeling with an active engagement of the body.
Publication: Towards (Im)Measurability of Art and Life (2017)
“Images don’t show matter; they show what matters.” Vilém Flusser, Into the Universe of Technical Images “When measurement is viewed as a practice, it is important to recall that data processing, especially visualisation, actually necessitates many aesthetic decisions. This makes contemporary practices of measurement appear to be no longer guided primarily by reason. Although, historically, measurement has always contained aspects of subjectivity, enlightenment in modernity aimed at excluding them based on ideological tenets of democracy and the necessities of administration (Porter, 1997). The intervention of computation indicates the importance of re-embracing, rather than excluding, subjectivity in the concept of measurement.…
Each Line Is A Crime (2018)
Group Exhibition on the occasion of the book presentation of Towards (Im)Measurability of Art and Life With Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli, Robert Estermann, and Katya Sander July 28 – August 24, 2018 Archive Kabinett/ Müllerstraße 133, D-13349, Berlin “Each Line Is A Crime” is the group exhibition to explore the theme of “Art and Measurement”. The show presents three works by Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli (Germany), Robert Estermann (Switzerland), and Katya Sander (Denmark), each addressing different political, economic, aesthetic, and ethical issues of measurement in contemporary society. Auf der Lauer & Pauli engage in…
Dialogues between Artists and Scientists (2013-2014)
As a part of the measurement research, I organised a series of events, called “Dialogues between Artists and Scientists”. Three events have been scheduled for December 2013 and January 2014 at Kunstraum of Leuphana University of Lueneburg. For each event, one artist and one scientist are invited to give a presentation about their work which will lead into a discussion. The aim is to intersect two different approaches and ideas on measurement and measurability. Dialogue between an Artist and a Scientist is supported by institut francais, Heidelberger Kunstverein and Kunstraum of Leuphana University of Lüneburg.
Presentations and Readings (2013)
As the first attempt within a context of the investigation in the university, I organise as well as conducted a series of presentations on the theme of measurement in Leuphana University, Lüneburg, which included lectures and conversations. Participated by the university colleagues from the different background, I explored systems and symptoms around measurement in different disciplines and cultures, experimenting with various methods of research and styles of presentation.