alien matter
transmediale exhibition
2 Feb - 5 Mar 2017
HKW and various venues

alien matter

Within the scope of ever elusive – thirty years of transmediale, the special exhibition "alien matter" will be on view at Haus der Kulturen der Welt from 2 February to 5 March 2017. The exhibition is curated by Inke Arns and co-financed by Berlin LOTTO Foundation.

"Alien matter" refers to man-made, and at the same time, radically different, potentially intelligent matter. It is the outcome of a naturalization of technological artifacts. Environments shaped by technology result in new relationships between man and machine. Technical objects, previously defined merely as objects of utility, have become autonomous agents. Their capacity to learn and network throws into question the previously clear and dominant division between active subject and passive object.

30 exhibiting artists from Berlin and around the world present works about shifts within such power structures, raising questions about the state of our current environment and whether it has already passed the tipping point, becoming “alien matter.” Content-wise, the works cluster around four thematic focal points: Artificial intelligence, plastics, infrastructure, and the Internet of Things—subcategories that are deemed to merge into the nascent great machine and thereby, to speak with Günther Anders, are future obsolete.

Artists & Artworks

Aliens in Green

Xenopolitics #1: Petro-bodies and Geopolitics of Hormones, 2017

Morehshin Allahyari & Daniel Rourke

The 3D Additivist Cookbook, 2016–17

Constant Dullaart

DullDream, 2017

Ignas Krunglevičius

Hard Body Trade, 2015

Mark Leckey

GreenScreenRefrigeratorAction, 2010

Joep van Liefland

Video Palace #44 – The Hidden Universe, 2017

Jeroen van Loon

An Internet, 2015

Nicolas Maigret & Maria Roszkowska

Predictive Art Bot, 2017

Katja Novitskova

Swoon Motion, 2015

Sascha Pohflepp

Recursion, 2016

Johannes Paul Raether

Protekto.x.x. 5.5.5.1.pcp, 2017

Evan Roth

Burial Ceremony, 2015/17

Suzanne Treister

HFT The Gardener, 2014–15

Addie Wagenknecht

Internet of Things, No. 1–3, 2016

Addie Wagenknecht

XXXX.XXX, 2014

YoHa

Plastic Raft of Lampedusa, 2016–17

Pinar Yoldas

Artificial Intelligence for Governance, the Kitty AI, 2016