2013
This series has won multiple prestigious awards, and I imagine it brought you significant attention and expectations as an artist. What did that experience bring to you? Now, over a decade later, is there anything you feel or recognize differently?Back then, I was really surprised by the response, and I wasn’t prepared for the almost viral effect it had. I think today, there’s a kind of blueprint for dealing with sudden recognition, but the only thing I knew back then was that I didn’t want to “sell out.”
As much as I wanted to be successful with this series, the more attention it got, the worse I felt mentally. Being an introvert, I couldn’t handle it. Plus, the only way I knew to establish myself as an artist was through representation by a major gallery. But in the application process, it became clear they’d need a higher output of new work than I was able to produce. Today, I’d be able to approach it differently, in a more structured and business-oriented way, I think.
After presenting Luminant Point Arrays, graduating from university, and working as a freelance designer, you attended the HPI School of Design Thinking in Potsdam and later became a service designer. What made you decide not to pursue a full-time career as an artist?The experience of the first series made it clear that there was pressure to constantly create something new and unexpected. I didn’t want to play that game, and I wasn’t built for it. Today, I think the rules are a little different, but back then, I feared being typecast as the “TV guy” forever. I also didn’t want to live project-to-project, dependent on funding. Working as a service designer was a great way to make a living while staying at the intersection of creativity and tech.
On your website, besides the two series, there is also a single project titled Transparency Units from 2018. Could you share more about the concept of this piece and what inspired you to start working on it?Transparency Units are used for scanning photographic negatives. They’re usually part of flatbed scanners and shine light through a negative, enabling it to be captured and read by the computer. Each unit varies in form depending on the manufacturer and model. The negatives for the Transparency Units series were scanned using the specific scanner of the motif shown. I found it fascinating to let each scanner capture itself, especially since this is a subject from the photography world. Most people probably overlook this part when they’re scanning something, so it’s a bit about making the invisible visible, similar to Luminant Point Arrays.
The idea came to me by accident when I forgot to place a document in the scanner. Suddenly, the scanner’s transparency unit became visible, and its aesthetics reminded me of space equipment, which I really liked. Then I started experimenting with different approaches, eventually landing on having each unit scan itself. The series also carries an aspect of concrete photography: the motifs go beyond mere depiction, referencing both themselves and photography as a medium.
This was the only time I convinced myself to work with analog photography since I needed the negatives for the concept. I also used digital photography to blow them up to 165 x 115 cm.