CDS Tote-Bags

For my first project for the orientation tutorial, I got the idea when
we already visited the workshop for textile technology. What I
wanted to do was to print CDs (because of CDS) on tote bags.

The design was made by me and got printed onto tote bags with screen printing. 

What I enjoyed about doing this project was the fact that this was a very hands-on project, which was a nice change to sitting in the classroom also because I am used to working digitally. I also really appreciated the fact that I got to know a new skill and a new material to work with
since I have never worked with either textile or screen printing
before. The most satisfying part though was, to see your project
come to life from the digital design to the print for the screen, to the actual screen for printing, and finally on the bags themselves. 

Faces of the 21st century

The grid provides stability – order. When we observe photos and videos, they are based on the grid. When we look at a photo closely, we can identify individual pixels – simple color squares – which, in their entirety, form a photo in a thousandfold quantity and, consequently, convey meaning. 

I utilized this process – this complexity – for my work to deconstruct a portrait into its individual components and reassemble them with other parts from different portraits. This results is a completely new, almost inhuman, unfamiliar face. This abstraction of the face – making one out of many, creating a family from strangers – aims to point out our simplest commonality, that of being human.

In addition to the grid, my work draws attention to a much more profound theme. Just as humanity unites us, differences in culture, gender, skin color, sexuality, religion, age – the list goes on indefinitely – divide us. Just as these differences separate us, at the end of the day, suffering brings us back together. Growing up in this century, as well as growing old, is anything but easy, marked by a childhood of crises and a later life that cannot be enjoyed. While thousands of kilometers away, people starve, die from diseases, are enslaved. Many of these crises have a simple cause – a crumbling system that profits from exploitation and poverty. One that is based on the structures of colonization and treats people just as poorly. To simplify, the absence of being human.

My work is not a solution but a portrayal, a highlighting of humanity in a time of precariousness, in a time when people are reduced to numbers, mere parts of the system. Because even though at the end of the day, we lay down alone with all our problems, mistakes, and crises. We, as humanity, must see our strength as a movement, as a collective, and exercise our power as such.

Without you

Who would I have been, if you wouldn’t taught me to speak?
Stumbling with words; crying.

Who would I have been, if you weren’t there to catch me?
Crawling on the cold floor; falling into the abyss.

Who would I have been, if you weren’t there while I found out who I truly am?
Lost; a spirit floating in somebody else’s existence.

Who would I have been, if you weren’t the shoulder I could cry on?
A broken person with tears of ice raging in this physical manifestation of fragility.

Who would I have been, if you didn’t show me all the things I can be?
A stumbling – crying – crawling, piece of brokenness.

Who would I have been if you didn’t teach me how to listen? to be strong? to see with different eyes?
to be human?
to be me?

I am nothing without you;
my teacher, my role model, my mother, my brother, my friend
But I am, I live because of you.

Inge_borg: old names, old gender roles 

The photo series was a collaboration with Lisa Gerner and Viktoria Körbler. Based on Donna Haraways essay from 1985 “A Cyborg Manifesto”, the series aims to capture parts of the book. From technological advancements that profit all genders, to women in the “homework economy” and social groups moving in bubbles. 

Pictures taken by Viktoria Körbler 

“Dear x,

Tell me Eddie Banks is right, Euripides wanted to hunt us all up. I don’t feel where I want to go or where we are headed. I only see you at night. /away/is cancer pouring from the veins of each and every one you can imagine. Forces wellspring secretly in my veins daily, and as violence comes to lull me to slumber, bloggers desire tranquility -lorpai.translated sensualism.cheesually loving life.ers,- everyone has strengths and flaws, dresses ~both women and men~ appreciate aesthetic illusions and imitated tastes.  Therefore, I understand better what is at stake in this letter than any point in the mountains.

Lately, I have thought that being in the space of disappearance is like Albuquerque, where I live and imagine crossing paths with unicorns. I’m not digressing, Romeo, take off the thrice combusted amazon fella and retire peacefully. Sitting

With love, Elias”

“Dear x,

You love me intensely, deeply, you have already come to understand that. With you, I have learned to share, to always look for the best for us, and that has come even without me realizing it. It’s nice when life takes care of the rest, family takes care of the rest, and us, you, tentacles move Spiritually, without prompting, straight from the heart, without drums, without trumpeters, without sound, without colors, without colorsestablishment, without diction, NAD 065, 6911, 373Known, ever biological sex acts have been known and well documented. AMO 2007 doesn’t know if Royale will be – as it were, I am it Bertrand, as is he – and I am not Bertranda – I am not Nicolasa –

With love, Elias”

MICHELANGELO’S F@G

This code was part of a Science and Technology project, in which I finetuned a pre-trained GPT model with texts from Frieda Robles Ponce, a Mexican artist and writer. She worked in Mexico City at the Plaza de Santa Domingo as a public writer, where analphabetic people could approach her and ask her to write a love letter for them. 

Based of those text I finetuned a publicly available GPT model to generate love letters. The code for the project is avaliable here.