AMBER GABRIELLE STEPHENS
Coded Sensation
Story
Today we are entering the age of "wearables" -- intelligent "second skins" that are not only augmenting our senses, but actually complementing our entire being. They are becoming parts of our bodies, indispensable for physical activities and integrated in daily routines. Bodies with technological "attachments", "cybernetic organisms" rooted in our collective imagination since '60s, do not belong to Sci Fi literature any longer; they are becoming integral part of the everyday life. Inevitably, this "smart second skins" capture imaginative and creative potentials of contemporary artists, stimulating them to search for new applications and new meanings. In this direction moves the project developed by Martin Rille, Coded Sensation, in collaboration with choreographer Amber Stephens postulating the possibility to transform the surface of our body into the "sensible container" of data and knowledge, of words and sounds that can be "released" through body contact. Touching, hearing and feeling thus become equally important as seeing; a synthesis of senses become a way of knowing the world. For the moment it is only a possibility; but that is exactly what art should do: envision possibilities and open perspectives, allowing us to became aware of our present and even more of our hypothetic future. Seeing sculptural and performative works by Martin Rille make us believe that future is closer than we think: it corresponds to a time-dimension in which we are able to "unfold" our stories through sensible body-films that make us "speak" through the movement, guide us in a sort of a sensuous dance enhanced by mysterious music and noise produced by dark and shiny "sound" suits. Suits, made of audio tape and entirely sustainable, besides potential futuristic scenarios, trigger awareness of environmental urgencies of our present time. Dobrila Denegri Sarah Hyee --
DESIGN/CLOTHING Amber Gabrielle -- CHOREOGRAPHY Michael Hammerschmid -- PHILOLOGY Max Frey -- KINETIC ART Hannes Köcher -- DIGITAL ART