Happening at Q18 Exhibition Space, with Michael Schmitt
This is the archive of documented work, from most recent back to 2002.
As most of these things are time-based, would you take note of the videos.
For a short portfolio, a quick overview, please see “7 Selected”.
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Johansson
This artwork draws its inspiration from the seminal motion perception experiments conducted by Swedish psychologist Gunnar Johansson in the 1970s. At the heart of the piece is a TV screen displaying a looped video based on Johansson’s original “biological motion” study. The footage features point-light displays — isolated dots of light affixed to key joints of a human body, filmed in motion against a dark background. When the video plays, a fluid, unmistakably human form emerges from these sparse dots. But when the footage pauses, the figure dissolves into an almost unreadable scatter of points. This visual disappearance is not just aesthetic—it is essential to the scientific insight the artwork explores.
The TV screen is programmed to alternate between short bursts of motion and extended periods of stillness. This rhythm mirrors the interplay between perception and cognition: the viewer must wait for motion to resume in order to perceive the figure again. The 20-second pauses build tension and anticipation, but also foreground the fragility of perception—how easily meaning disappears when information is incomplete. In this way, the piece transforms a passive viewing experience into an active one. The audience is not just watching movement but participating in the very conditions that make movement comprehensible.
Scientifically, the piece references Johansson’s discovery that humans possess an extraordinary ability to detect biological motion from minimal cues. Even without outlines, textures, or facial features, our brains can reconstruct the form and movement of a living body from just a few moving dots. This has profound implications for our understanding of visual processing, suggesting that motion is a fundamental input for the perception of form. Johansson’s work laid the groundwork for decades of research in psychology, neuroscience, computer vision, and robotics.
By turning this research into a time-based artwork, the installation bridges science and aesthetics. It highlights how the brain’s perceptual systems can be both brilliant and fragile—able to make sense of almost nothing, yet helpless when the essential cue of motion is removed. The disappearing figure on the paused screen serves as a metaphor for this cognitive blind spot. Viewers find themselves searching for something they know is there but cannot perceive without the aid of motion. The piece turns scientific insight into an embodied experience.
Ultimately, this work challenges how we understand vision, identity, and presence. It asks: when does a body become visible? What makes something recognizably human? The fleeting visibility of the figure suggests that identity is not a static property but an event—a moment of coherence in time. Through a simple mechanism of play and pause, the piece invites us to reflect on how perception is a dynamic process, dependent on both stimulus and the observer’s engagement. In doing so, it transforms a foundational experiment in visual science into a poetic meditation on presence and invisibility.
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Das Cabinet
Ultra Slow Film Projection (4 Frames / Minute) of one second taken from the german silent movie “Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari”. The installation is using a mechanical shutter, 3D-printed based on a more than 100 years old technical drawing. Shown during the “Projektionen” Group Exhibiton, organized by Art von Demon, Berlin
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Einstein Rosen Brücke
Installation with Michael Schmitt, at Kunstraum Anakoluth, Köln
Video also available in german, featuring the audio guide from the exhibiton, which then was provided by a phone number.
A model train disappears into a tunnel in the left-hand window of a closed gallery. Instantly—without delay—it emerges from a second tunnel in the window to the right, gliding into view as if the distance between them had collapsed completely. Between the two windows lies a transparent glass door, revealing that no physical connection exists. And yet, the train seems to jump.
Einstein Rosen Bridge is a quietly delightful intervention into both everyday space and the physics of illusion. Named after the theoretical “bridge” or wormhole that connects two points in spacetime (first described by Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen in 1935), the piece evokes a familiar trope from science fiction: the impossible portal that makes the fantastic plausible. A phone number posted near the work offered callers a brief explanation of the Einstein-Rosen bridge, but offered no clues about the mechanics of the train itself.
Technically, the trick is achieved through a carefully timed choreography between two identical Märklin H0 model trains, sensors, and a custom microcontroller hidden from view. But the artists deliberately leave the technology in the background. What matters is the feeling—a moment of magic in the middle of a quiet street, where something as ordinary as a model train becomes a vehicle for surprise, wonder, and maybe a little bit of sci-fi awe.
Born from a playful back-and-forth between two longtime collaborators, the piece also touches—gently—on ideas of childhood nostalgia, the suspension of disbelief, and the serious possibilities of “adult toys.” Installed during the gallery’s summer closure, Einstein Rosen Bridge turned the shopfront itself into a kind of time-space experiment: a speculative fiction you could stumble upon while walking by.
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Simple Sample
Sound-reactive Light Installation at „Zero Abend Film und Musik“, Akademie der Künste Berlin, 2015
Simple Sample is a roughly one-square-meter light object: a diffusive panel lit by RGB-LEDs, driven by a self-designed circuit and software. Rather than running on fixed timing, the system listens. In random intervals, it samples incoming sound—translating its characteristics into rapid flickers of color, updating about 1000 times per second.
The result is a visual echo of sound, shaped by the chaos and rhythm of the source itself. The software is intentionally raw, unpredictable, and simple—just like the name suggests. But this simplicity holds space for complex, often surprising interactions between sound and vision. Music doesn’t just trigger light—it shapes its behavior. A jazz track will create a different mood than pulsing electronics, and each moment feels unique.
For its debut, Simple Sample was paired with the sound of Düsseldorf artist Pyrolator, creating a one-night-only synesthetic experience. The panel doesn’t strive for accurate representation—it’s not a “sample” in the traditional, technical sense. Instead, it explores what happens when feedback, randomness, and audiovisual perception meet.
Flickering, unpredictable, sometimes hypnotic—it’s a piece you don’t watch so much as you feel. Cameras won’t capture it properly; it lives in your eyes and ears. You don’t need to understand the tech. Just take it in.
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“Herr Ober” sagt der Gast
two old-fashioned lamps controlled by an audio loop, which is not audible
shown at id new talents exhibition
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Gelb + Blau
Gelb + Blau (Yellow + Blue)
site specific installation with fluorescent lights and filters
for the id new talents exhibitonshown together with two works of Katharina Maderthaner
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Bar
“Bar” – with Michael Schmitt
Quartier am Hafen, Cologne, 27th of February, 2015
Drink: 4cl Wodka, 200ml Tonic Water, 1 Portion Citric Sorbet
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a blink
shown 17th – 22nd of July 2014, at GOLD+BETON, Cologne
This exhibition explores the complexities of human perception, particularly how it contrasts with the way a camera captures light and color. It guides visitors from the spontaneous bursts of color in the front gallery to a meticulously choreographed light experience in the back, evoking an almost psychedelic vision. The aim is to encourage reflection on individual perception within unique settings, inviting viewers to engage with the interplay of light and the intricacies of visual experience.
RGBlaster (2008-2014)
This installation consists of three strobe lights filtered in red, green, and blue, operating at the slowest flash rate. Due to slight manufacturing variations, the lights occasionally synchronize, resulting in a dynamic display of colored and white light. This work highlights the randomness of color perception and its impact on the viewer’s experience.
RGBlaster 2 (2014)
Utilizing RGB LEDs and translucent white foil, this piece presents the three primary colors in a sequential manner. As the speed of the transitions varies, the colors merge into white light, creating optical illusions and patterns that engage human perception. This installation invites contemplation on the fluidity of color and visual interpretation.
A Blink (2014)
Discreetly located in the restroom, this installation features modified fluorescent lights controlled by a microprocessor that generates random delays mimicking the human blink rate. The lights flicker off for a brief moment (1/50 of a second), resulting in an ephemeral experience that may go unnoticed by some. This piece serves as a reminder of the fleeting moments that influence perception.
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massive copyright infringement (for pink noise salon)
with misha rabinovich. shown at pink noise salon, flux factory 2014
a number of random youtube clips (first 15 seconds each) is played back, 9 clips simultaneous, with the audio mix fed into a spectrum analyzer. in result, the analyzer shows the characteristics of pink noise
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dancing tree
The Palm Tree is triggered by a motion sensor, which lights up the LED powered tree as soon as someone moves in front of the piece. Continuous triggering (dancing, jumping, waving..) will soon start an animation: first in brightness of the tree, then the “disco mode” will engage. When interaction stops, or someone just passed by, the tree goes back to the dimmer state.
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