Scanned_Image / 2014

Scanned_Image01 / oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

Scanned_Image02/ oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

Scanned_Image03 / oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

Scanned_Image04/ oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

Scanned_Image05 / oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

Scanned_Image06 / oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

The visual message (painting) have in backround electronic devices: a scanner, scanning the light of a desk lamp or them self – with a help of a mirror. The images emerged in a process of trial scanning with open scanner and moving the light or mirror during the process of scanning. The accidental incurred glitch was the base of the finish result – oil paintings. The process of painting computer generated pictures reverse the image back to a real object and it needs a physical effort. The human factor is back and responsible for variability and subjectivity.

The processing of “re-using” is a strategy of cultural garbology, based on the content of the digital rubbish. As a result of using the redundant data, both – digital images and regular paintings are remediated and shifted into a new aesthetical dimension.

“The randomness of the picture as a key quality, results from a kind of “reverse engineering” tactics that Marcelina Wellmer applies in her works. Using everyday devices, the artist reaches for the ready-made aesthetical formula but also engages them in a form of a transmedial dialogue. “

E. Wojtowich/ PhD, Fine Arts Academy Poznan / Poland

Keywords: remediation, feedback, transmedia, scanning, systems aesthetics, randomness, reverse engineering.

 

ERROR 404 502 410 / 2018 – 2012

                                           ERROR 404 502 410 / 3 hard discs, acrylic glass, PC Housing, Arduino, Piezos, Speakers / 2012 – 2019

 ERROR 404 502 410 

ERROR 404 502 410 

Error_Tech_draft

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do computer errors sound like? In our everyday use of computers error messages are communicated without sound. Most likely you are presented with matter-of-fact information like, “Server Error. The server has encountered a temporary error and could not complete your request”, or “Oops…This link appears to be broken HTTP 404 File not found.” These silent messages are software interfaces designed to prevent you from having to worry about or engage with what is taking place at the deeper level of the computer‚s processor.

I created a group of hardware interfaces to three common errors that – beyond principles of usability – challenge the visitor to relate to the materiality of errors through the abstract qualities of sound.

Onto the disks of the drives I laser etched the 404 502 410 status codes in big Latin letters. Because of the lasered letters the disk routine stops and the write/read head goes back into its rest position, the disk powers down. A contact microphone is attached to the hard disk drive, recording the mechanical sounds of the moving disk and the write/read head. The sound gets amplified by an equalizer, pronouncing the rhythmical pattern of read action and the disk spinning. The boot routine creates a composition of random length and rhythm, that is always slightly different, depending on how and where on the spinning disk the read / write head gets distracted by the laser etched letters. While the disk is powered down and isn‚t spinning, the text becomes readable by the audience.

 “Marcelina Wellmer’s project Error 502 404 410 is a generative sound installation based on the phenomenon of server errors. Rarely noticed when occur, there are sounds, accompanying the technical failures. The discrete work of hard disk appliances becomes both an example of “reverse-engineering” and an attempt of a translation between media. The obscure realm of data noise is revealed with the artist’s scientific attitude and receives an aesthetic frame. As the disks perform their turns, in the endless loop of self-reference, the recursion is not always regular, disturbed by the randomness factor.“

E.Wojtowicz, PhD, University of Arts, Poznan / Poland

Poetry Machine / 2013


Poetry Machine / music stand, speakers, distance sensor, DIY mp3 platin / 2013

Poetry Machine / Music stand, speakers, distance sensor, DIY mp3 

Poetry Machine / Music stand, speakers, distance sensor, DIY mp3 / ICI Berlin exhibition view / 2013

Poetry Machine / audio&video documentation / ICI Berlin / 2013

Poetry Machine is mixing randomly two poems by William Blake: Little Girl Lost and Little Boy Lost. The poems are read out loud by the machine – every time the reading is launched, it may be different due to an algorithm responsible for using the particular verse from the database.The artificial voices are synthesized by computer software. The human body influences and interacts with the machine – based on the distance of the listener to the object, the voices are changing, changing in volume, mixing the sentences, getting destroyed. The work plays with the sensibility of machines, the fragility of digital memory and the interaction between human body and artificial object.