INSTALLATION «Spectral Specula»
Autors: Chris Strickler y Kira Wieckenberg
Music: Vicente Cervera
Final project by the students of the International Master’s Degree in Multimedia Creation for the Performing Arts
http://www.micme.net
The #MICME. Festival de Arte Interactivo is an exhibition of the final projects of the Master’s students, tutored by the teaching staff. The festival highlights the role of multimedia and technologies as the core of the artistic experience: live audiovisuals, performances and interactive improvisations in real time.
«The multimedia installation Spectral Specula is a collaborative work between Chris Strickler, Kira Wieckenberg and Vicente Cervera as sound designer. It is an effort to explore the sculptural potential of the combination of ceramics, servomotors and light. The work was conceived as an intense process of research in the field of sculpture, motorisation and programming, ultimately converging in a spectacle of light and movement.
The sculpture consists of a wooden structure to which 27 servomotors are attached. Attached to each of these are the same number of ceramic pieces, all with a highly reflective surface; individually shaped pieces that move with undulating movements by means of their corresponding motor. This movement is controlled by a network that coordinates and choreographs the motors and their communication with each other.
The highly reflective and moving surfaces of the pieces are in turn illuminated by several LED lights that shine in different colours and from different angles on the piece. Their reflections bounce off the surrounding walls, opening up a poetic world of light for visitors.»
Kira Wieckenberg
MICME International Master’s Degree in Multimedia Creation for the Performing Arts
www.micme.net
Kira Wieckenberg, student of the 2nd promotion of the MICME. International Master in Multimedia Creation for Live Shows at LABA Valencia, she graduated in July 2024 with DISTINCTION.
She is a multimedia artist. Although she works with various media such as video, performance, sculpture and drawing, she focuses on the creation of immersive and atmospheric multimedia installations.
For Kira Wieckenberg, every artistic process must begin with a question, a problem, an enigma. Her work revolves around the human experience of living in a complex world, in the suspense of ignorance, fear and ambiguity.
It provokes the entanglement of the human psyche with the supposedly self-evident rule systems of games. His avatars are always in a state of limbo between paralysis and the ability to play.
Wieckenberg understands herself as a sculptor and works with materials such as ceramics, glass and textiles, among others. In the central act of sewing and dressing costumes of imaginary characters, she perceives her own body as a tool in her sculptural work. By combining video projection with sculpture, she extends the space of the video into the present space, thus recognising the projection as part of the three-dimensional, sculptural process. This process is never stationary, always evolving and moving.
Through a colourful visual world of childlike symbolism, Wieckenberg plays with the expectations of his viewers. When his characters do not behave according to the prescribed symbol, these expectations are dashed and the viewer is left vulnerable. In this moment of vulnerability lies a subversive power: by realising that an assumed system of meaning is empty, you can sense the possibility of new ways of seeing. When one finds oneself unable to solve an enigma, one can begin to enjoy its absurdity.
Kira Wieckenberg lives and works in Hannover and Valencia. In 2022 she finished her studies of fine arts at the University of Art in Braunschweig with a diploma with honours, showing the solo exhibition ‘es gibt torte’. Since the end of 2023 she has been studying for a Master’s degree in Multimedia Creation at the LABA Valencia University with the support of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, of which she has been a scholarship holder since 2021.
https://www.instagram.com/otterspotter98
Visit here Wieckenberg’s installations at the MICME. FESTIVAL OF INTERACTIVE ART, realised as final projects of MICME. International Master in Multimedia Creation for Live Shows.
Chris Strickler, student of the 2nd promotion of the MICME. International Master in Multimedia Creation for Live Shows at LABA Valencia, he graduated in July 2024.
He is a multimedia and interdisciplinary artist dedicated to the creation of interactive installations and immersive playful spaces around the phenomena of light, technology, self and play.
His background in animation has developed into an interest in real-time media creation, interaction and spatial perception.
Chris tries to bring a sense of playfulness not only to the creation of his work, but also to the experience of the audience; an encounter between the joy of the artist and the joy of the audience. This concept of joy in artistic creation is for him, as it allows him to sustain his practice in the long term, for the rest of his life.
This joy is shared with the audience through interactive experiences that allow the viewer to become part of the work itself.
Chris Strickler’s work is interested in exploring the relationships between various contrasting themes; analogue and emerging technology; nature and technology; the ephemeral and the physical. How these concepts interact, whether they clash, complement or combine with each other, is what Chris seeks to discover.
Many discoveries often involve chance. Chance and spontaneity are embraced through experimentation in search of new and intriguing manifestations of colour, texture, movement and motion.
Sometimes the experiments are messy and chaotic. Chris retains these sensations until the final work, as they are part of the process. It is these experiments that drive Chris Strickler’s artistic practice. Without experimentation and exploration, there is no art.
As well as exploring the new frontiers of digital media and emerging technology, Chris also travels the well-worn path of video synthesisers and CRT televisions.
The material peculiarities of analogue video remain appealing even when many consider it a dead medium, but there are many interesting possibilities to be discovered by mixing different generations of visual technologies.
https://www.instagram.com/doktorgrafiks/
Visit Strickler’s installations at MICME here. FESTIVAL OF INTERACTIVE ART, realised as final projects of MICME. International Master in Multimedia Creation for Live Shows.
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