With Landscape Machines, Erich continues to investigate the topics of radioactivity and the landscape. Deep time, spectral phenomena, innate and anthropogenic landscapes are still at the center of his attention, only this time explored in the local context of Slovenia – the Žirovski vrh uranium mine and the human and non-human processes that shape its past and futures.
The installation consists of an artist text, a graphic representation and visual overview of the landfills Boršt and Jazbec, seismic and gamma radiation observatory, sonic and electromagnetic environment, and a proxy Landscape Machine Boršt in a cloudchamber.
The installation is the result of more than a year of research and fieldwork and is a kind of observatory for sensing the planetary machine. The installation itself is an apparatus that we can enter in order to observe the processes at work in the spatial and temporal dimensions below and beyond the threshold of our perception.
Production: Zavod Projekt Atol
Curator, producer: Tjaša Pogačar
Conceptual conversations and fieldwork: Marko Peljhan
Initial cloud chamber experiments and conversations: Arts at CERN / Accelerate Finland / CAPSULA (art-science-nature) / Saastamoinen Foundation
Field recording, audio production and postprocessing, multichannel audio programming, fieldwork photo documentation: Till Bovermann, plonk GmbH
Video editing: Laura Kaker
Cloud chamber production: Jakob Grčman, Rea Vogrinčič, Jože Zajec
Aerial photography: C-Astral
Blender 3D work: Nuno Sousa
3D printing: Sushant Passi, Aalto Design Factory
Aluminium casting: Maija Fox
Graphic design: Marko Damiš, Wild
Exhibition setup and technical support: Valter Udovičić
Supported by: University of California: Systemics Lab – Media Arts and Technology, Kone Foundation Finland, Arts Promotion Center Finland, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, European Regional Development Fund of the European Union, City of Ljubljana
Acknowledgements: Rudnik Žirovski Vrh and all collaborators
Photo: Katja Goljat, Matjaž Rušt/arhiv konS
CV
Erich Berger is an artist, curator and cultural worker based in Helsinki Finland. His focus is on the intersection of art, science and technology with a critical take on how they transform society and the world at large. Throughout his practice he has explored the materiality of information, and information and technology as artistic material. Berger’s current interest in issues of deep time and hybrid ecology led him to work with geological processes, radiogenic phenomena and their socio-political implications in the here and now. He moves between visual arts and science in an area which he also investigates and develops as director of the Bioart Society in Helsinki. His installations, performances and interfaces are exhibited widely and Berger received awards from renowned institutions such as Prix Ars Electronica (AT), ZKM (DE), Vida Telefonica (ES), Files Prix (BR) and Arts at CERN (CH).