Sunday, October 10, 2010

Heiko Daxl and Kit Webster - Final Writing Assignment (posted 9/29)

For my final writing assignment, and last week's Power Point presentation, I've chosen two artists to compare and contrast: Heiko Daxl and Kit Webster. 



Heiko Daxl
I was dreading this written assignment because I couldn’t dig up enough information on Heiko Daxl, one of the two artists I chose. I found plenty on the other artist, Kit Webster and incorporated that into last week’s PowerPoint presentation. Then, out of blue, Mr. Daxl emailed me an invitation to an annual artist festival, called Pixxelpoint, which he and his wife, Ingeborg Fülepp, are curators for.  Although I won’t be able to make the event because it’s on the other side of our planet, the event’s site gave me plenty of information about Heiko Daxl. Below in red is the text from the Pixxelpoint site with my comments in normal black font.


Heiko Daxl a German media artist and exhibition curator and his wife and partner Ingeborg Fülepp, a Croatian artist, university teacher, curator and film editorand, are renowned video and media artists who are at home in Berlin and Zagreb and who are recognized in both cities. Since 1990 they have worked together as an artistic couple under the name "mediainmotion" and "dafü®" within film, video art, visual music, digital art, graphics, photo, installation and Mixed Media. Both established in Zagreb starting from 1993 and still during the war in Croatia the exhibition series Media Scape with international media art at the Museum for Contemporary Art in Zagreb (until 1999) and since 2005 in the Galerija Rigo and Muzej Lapidarium in Novigrad (Cittánova) in the Croatian region of Istria. In the year 2006 this manifestation was extended in co-operation with Noam Braslavsky under the title Strictly Berlin in the Galerie der Künste (GdK) in Berlin.

This introduction to Heiko Daxl (as well as his wife, Ingeborg Fulepp) can be easily verified their Web sites http://www.mediainmotion.de/ and http://daxl.org/.  However, to separate Daxl from his wife for the sake of this report and last week’s presentation, I referred mostly to http://daxl.org/.


Besides their own artistic oeuvre, their teaching activity and their cooperation at the studio for electroacoustic music of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin (1995–2002) they have worked in the context of concerts and theatre performances also with contemporary composers such as Georg Katzer, Wolfgang Rihm, Hans Joachim Hespos, Frano Parac, Gerhard Staebler, Mona Mur, Jorge Reyes, Steve Roach, Suso Saiz, Kunsu Shin, Amnon Wolman, Bert Wrede, Dror Feiler, Masami Akita (Merzbow), Zbigniew Karkowski, Elliott Sharp, Tobias P.M. Schneid, Valerio Pizzorno, Igor Kuljerić and Mario Verandi and the ensembles Ensemble Modern, Neue Vokalsolisten, Ensemble Belcanto, Zeitkratzer, Ensemble Varianti, Ensemble 13.

I know they are artists and I know that Daxl is a teacher. But I did not know he “worked in the context of concerts and theatre performances” or with famous composers.


The numerous works they have created bear witness to their joy of experimenting, always moving on the borderline to the unknown. Employing new technologies, they investigate different, so far unknown optic and acoustic phenomena. The observer's senses, his hearing, his sight and his touch, are always consciously engaged, irritating his perception. Daxl and Fülepp show new ways in the artistic exploration of the technical possibilities of creating sounds and abstract images which force the observer to an integrated reception. They seek to make the recipient think about the reality which is imparted to him in an artificial and technical way.

I sent Daxl an email asking “What motivates you to produce great works like these?   What message are you hoping to portray to us?” Although, in the past, he usually responded to my emails I have yet to receive a response to this one, unless I count this invitation to the Pixxelpoint Festival.  Fortunately, this portion of the Pixxelpoint site does a great job answering my question. This is what I was seeking for my presentation.


They have had work commissioned by Budge-Palais (Hamburg), Donaueschinger Musiktage (Donaueschingen Festival for Contemporary classical music), Bayerische Staatsoper München, Lehmbruck-Museum Duisburg, Photokina Köln, Toshiba Tokyo, Magyar Televízió Budapest, Südwestrundfunk Stuttgart, Music Biennale Zagreb, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin) Berlin State Museums (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Goethe-Institut, INFERMENTAL, Budapest.


The information that I was able to retrieve from Daxl’s site, which I used in last week’s Power Point presentation, was his basic bio and the icing on the cake, which is his artwork:

“Born in Oldenburg, Germany; lives and works in Berlin and Zagreb.”

“Studied architecture at the Technical University, Berlin; media science and art history in Braunschweig, Zürich, and Osnabrück.”

“Has M.A. in communication aesthetics.”

In my presentation, I also made the following observation citing our textbook:

“Although Daxl specializes in various forms of digital art, he seems to prefer video art.  Margot Lovejoy’s “Digital Currents” describes video art as “live feedback in seeing moving images…” (p. 94).  This is what Daxl does quite well.”

Now for the Icing on the Cake













 












































Kit Webster

It was also difficult to find sufficient personal information on Kit Webster, although he was kind enough to email me anything I wasn’t clear on.  Also, like Daxl, I sent him the same email asking “What motivates you to produce great works like these?   What message are you hoping to portray to us?” and, he has yet to respond. Therefore, regarding his bibliographical information, I can give you all I have which was used in last week’s presentation.  Fortunately, because it’s much easier to find Kit Webster’s artwork, I will show more of his work this in this assignment.


The information that I was able to retrieve from Webster, which I used in last week’s Power Point presentation:



Kit Webster informed me through Facebook that he was born in Melbourne, Australia

On his Vimeo account he states “I am a new media installation artist and composer from Melbourne, Australia.”

He has a BFA from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne.


In my presentation, I also made the following observation citing our textbook:

Kit Webster refers to himself as an “installation artist”.  Margot Lovejoy’s book “Digital Currents” agrees as it defines installation art as video projections... in unexpected places  (p. 138).
The Icing on the Cake

 






Comparisons and Contrasts from Power Point Presentation:
In last week’s reports I was required to choose two pieces of art from both artists then compare and contrast them. I chose these pieces:

 
 


In comparing the works, I noted the following:

Both artists are extremely gifted in their use of color.  These pieces use very well blended, yet contrasting, colors.

Both artists display great skills with the computer and other forms of technology.

It doesn’t take much analyzing to see that these pieces of art were done with pride from their creators.


In contrasting the works, I noted the following:

Daxl tends to use abstract and disorderly patterns in his designs.

Webster uses orderly patterns and, for the most part uses a lot of repeating simple geometric shapes.







Conclusion:
In retrospect, although I probably would have still chosen Kit Webster for last week’s presentation and this report, I wish I had chosen a different second artist other than Heiko Daxl.  Although this extremely bottom-heavy class didn’t give us enough time to find artists we can be passionate about or find adequate information on, I will say (even though I’m not supposed to) that I loved their works and I loved their use of colors.




Sources

http://www.pixxelpoint.org/tripleconjunction-e.html

http://www.mediainmotion.de/

http://daxl.org/

http://kitwebster.com.au/

http://vimeo.com/kitw

facebook.com/kit.webster

Email correspondence from both artists

“Digital Currents” by Margot Lovejoy

My Power Point Presentation presented in class on 11/22



No comments:

Post a Comment