Associação Cultural Videobrasil

A collection of artistic productions on CD-ROM curated by Hermann Nöring and presented by the ZKM and Goethe Institutes.

This collection brings together seven of the most articulate multimedia art producers in Europe. Its objective is to provide consistent examples of various possibilities presented by the vast gamut of resources inherent to this new medium of artistic expression. Some of the main characteristics of digital hypermedia are its non-linearity, its interactivity and the possibility of combinations which, together, present a great potential for revamping both the aesthetics of art as well as the aspects related to its usage.

Since 1994, the ZKM Institute has been offering, once a year, the opportunity for three different producers to develop new projects on CD-ROM as resident artists. This collection put together by Nöring is a selection from that program, with the presentation of works by six producers. The first of them, Eye You, is a group of independent creators who have been gathering to design small interactive projects. Since early 1995, a team of graphic designers, programmers and sound editors have committed themselves to producing "the most presentable games using a minimum amount of hard-disk memory", according to their own definition. From all their productions, three are presented here in the festival: "Male Trip Sound, Soundpostcards from Berlin and Dagtolyse".

Other works shown in the festival include two works by the creative duo Marina Grzinié and Aina Smid: Troubles with Sex and Theory & History. KP Ludwig John and Bertram Quosdorf conceived Ottos Mops, a kind of game that incites the user to venture into new discoveries. Continue, by the artist Dieter Kiessling, suggests a minimalistic conceptual work where the interactive process can always be restarted. The Berlin Medieninstitut also participates in this collection with the work Building in Light, where one finds an extensive multimedia catalogue with text, citations and biographical information about Bruno Taut's Glasshouse, an industrial glass pavillion built in 1914, and considered to date as a classic landmark of modern architecture, where new solutions of construction with glass and concrete were introduced.

In Pool Processing by Heiko Idensen, 400 media artists, members of the European Media Art Festival, are called upon to participate in the project, a sort of work-in-progress proposed by the author. The CD-ROM Venetian Deer, produced by the veteran group of artists Die Veteranen (Stock, Hausen & Walkmann) conducts the user to perform a number of simple tasks which will lead him or her to surf through a labyrinth combining passages of music with phonetic poems. Finally, the work Trance Machine, by Anja Wiese, consists of a game whereby combining words, the user forms his own phrases - reflections of a fictitious character about oneself.