Banz & Bowinkel
Giulia Bowinkel & Friedemann Banz generate scenarios of the juxtaposition of nature, texture, body and space, mass, form and substance. The artist duo generates reflective moments that shift between moving images, virtual scupltures and snapshots. Technological tools that have become an integral part of contemporary society serve as source and material – the computer becomes a tool and the interactions with it the subject of their work. The human being free in his choice and with his computer technological possibilities [as a subject and as an avatar] form again and again a reference point when generating forms in the visual (re)-construction of diversity and the digital image of what presents itself as {real}.
Last update on 10-03-2023
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Featured Artworks
Bard Ionson enjoys working with tools that embed different layers of reading and understanding. Working with Generative AI hence comes as a natural choice. The media seduces with its potential to include multiple layers of images and bring them together through algorithmic alterations. In Alien of Venus, a bright luminous blue dominates the composition. From there, organic features emerge, such as leaf veins and holes. With this micro-organic environment, the artist reflects on the discovery, earlier in 2020, of life on the planet Venus.
Substance I 04
2017
Still
Banz & Bowinkel's Bodypaint V 05 builds from the dripping technique that Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock initiated in the late 1940s. In this digital rendering, performance is essential. The method consists of tracking bodily movements in 3D space through the use of an avatar. The data collected then translates into a liquid painting, with each colour showing an individual body action in a room. Artists then bring together these lines into a flat, two-dimensional composition. One could understand the resulting still picture as non-objective: what we observe is abstract aesthetic. But what we see remains, in fact, representational. It shows a collected and revised data set.
Bodypaint V 05
2018
Still
The Foundry
Creating Abstract Work in the Digital Age
01/03/21
Online
“Creating Abstract Works in the Digital Age” is part of a series of four panels organised by MoCDA, UCL and Hobs3D to discuss the relationship between space and aesthetics.
Events
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Abstract Art in the Age of New Media is a virtual group show curated by Serena Tabacchi and Marie Chatel featuring works by Banz & Bowinkel, Gibson / Martelli, Joanne Hastie, Harrison, Willmott, Aaron Scheer, Alex Reben, Arnaud Laffond, Chris Dorland, Casey Reas, Darcy Gerbarg, Brendan Dawes, Kjetil Golid, Mathieu Merlet Briand, Maurice Benayoun, Mario Klingemann, Shohei Fujimoto, Yoshi Sodeoka, Sara Ludy, Snow Yunxue Fu, Markos Kay, Damjanksi, David Young, Gordon Berger, Bård Ionson, Manfred Mohr, Robbie Barrat.
A multidisciplinary team headed by two UCL researchers has been awarded a research grant from the British Academy to unravel the psychology of how people view and remember artworks in a gallery. The collaboration between cognitive psychologists, cultural and digital sector professionals takes place in the context of an online shift for art collections worldwide.
An art gallery is a psychologically interesting place. Different art objects form a spatial layout, and visitors must navigate around the space to view the objects. The team’s previous research shows the spatial environment surrounding an artwork is implicitly integrated with our aesthetic responses to the work itself. Building on recent neuroscientific work on how the brain represents space, this new project will investigate how spatial layout of objects within a museum can influence different aspects of the viewer’s experience.
How does the position of each object within the gallery layout affect how much we like the object, and how well we remember it? The researchers conducted a number of online experimental studies, using specially-developed art exhibitions within a virtual museum. This project involved a unique collaboration between cognitive psychology researchers Dr Mariana Babo-Rebelo and Prof Patrick Haggard (Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL), art curators Serena Tabacchi and Marie Chatel (MoCDAt) virtual reality expert Kadine James and artist and developer Allen Namiq (Hobs3D).