ROUNDTABLE

Anna and Daniela presented their ideas for their planned Master Diploma in the winter semester 2018/19:

Daniela Brill Estrada – why matter matters
Daniela is presenting her further investigations and research concerning the fundamental forces appearing in the universe. Referring to thoughts by Max Tegmark she questions consciousness as one of these forces. A mayor part of her work is the determination of chemical elements and compositions of molecules which are shaping the human body, and which are at once represented in other parts of the universe. Especially the element of carbon is noticed as the fundamental requirement concerning the potential of human life. Another focus counts to material that is not living, but which is also becoming part of the human body: sewing strings which are used in context of medical interventions, and which are absorbed later and becoming alive thereby. Furthermore, she is discussing the concept of self-organization of atoms as a reason for life and as a term of how a system is getting alive. She constitutes her artistic approach as an almost endless network, within which all the different questions, investigations and experiments are related to each other in an open and anti-hierarchical process.

Anna Lerchbaumer – case Electra
Anna is creating a fictional story based on the personification of electric power. The narration has aspects of a criminal case: she constitutes an imaginary office of counterterrorism, mysterious incidents happen where power cables are suddenly coming out of walls and herself is incorporated in these investigations as a media archaeologist. As Elektra is living through the power grid, her living conditions and possibilities of expressions are shaped by this fact. Electra has a certain consciousness about her received lifetime dose on earth and matches herself with other personifications of wave transportation, as she is for example jealous about audio-waves which can go directly into the human brain. Electra’s expressions are noticed as voices out of the off, hence Anna questions Electra’s status and designation: is Electra dead or living, is she maybe a silent server?