11 disciplines, 22 weeks, 33 Transformations - an interdisciplinary art project. An exhibition in collaboration with the University of Arts Berlin and Karl-Hofer Prize winner 2006.
Project
'Chinese Whispers' (de. Stille Post) is a popular children's game played by a circle of people in which one person whispers a message to another, which is then passed around the circle until the last player announces the message to the entire group. Very often, the message has somehow been changed along the way and the result can be surprising and the source of much amusement.The joy of the game lies in the ambiguous falsification of the content, the absurdity of flipped language and the rampant associations. Each player marvels that he/she contributed to the transfiguring process in which the original message was lost, even though he/she supposedly could hear exactly what was said.
What happens then when 11 players from the fields of architecture, visual art, design, film, photography, composition, landscape architecture, media, music and philosophy give the game an artistic purpose? What if they each receive their co-player's work and translate it into their own specific medium, and then circulate it to transform further?
From the 18th-25th June 2006 the result of this artistic transformation process was presented in the New Gallery of Karl Hofer Society, Oberschoeneweide in Berlin. There were 33 works on display that each owed their existence to interdisciplinary and intermedial translation work. 11 artists and scientists engaged in the game of transforming three particular works via their specialist field. Each of the actors involved responded in a specified time of 14 days, each in a predetermined order on the three works, each in a state of transformation. It was strictly ensured that no player got the same answer twice and that there was a great variety of disciplines and media translations. At the same time a vow of silence was observed: for the 22 weeks until the end of the transformation period it was agreed that in each case only two people be involved in the same transfer, so that everyone only learned what was transmitted between the others at the end.
Unlike the children's game, the intermediate states were made public in the exhibition, so that visitors could understand its dominant lines, breaks and junctions. Responding to a piece of music with a theoretical text, or a document of photos, which in turn gives the impetus for a video installation, is then obtained from a variety of entanglements. As well as the visuals, of particular interest are the links between the art forms and disciplines. The series of the revisions have not been lost. Not only are the pari passu options inter or transdisciplinary, but the untranslatables and the turning points are also marked.
A catalog that situates the process of artistic transformation within art theory and art history accompanied the exhibition.
The project is co-financed by the Berlin program for the promotion of equal opportunities for women in research and teaching and the mentoring program of the University of Arts Berlin. With the generous support of the University of Arts Berlin and the Karl Hofer Society.
Game Rules
The game period is 22 weeks, beginning 04.11.2005.
Each actor's game time is 2 weeks. Transfer date is every other Friday.
Each actor reacts to a previous object and returns his product exclusively to the next actor.
The starting material is the term "POST" and is known to all.
Three players react to this first term.
These three works are provided exclusively to the next three transformers. This continues until each player responds a total of three times on a previous work. There are three independent rounds.
Each player responds in each of the three rounds to a different team-mate.
The handover of the work must be done 1:1, that the result of a work phase is passed in the original.
When the mediation is over the last player explains nothing, she simply puts down, shows, plays or reads.
Each transformation pair creates a handover protocol. This is a text with three questions and max. 10 sentence answer.
On the graph there is the sequence of rounds to follow. Each section stands for a working period of two weeks.
More information on the side of the mentoring program.