As one could read in the previous post, we went to the ZKM in Karlsruhe, where we visited the exposition 'Medium religion' and had dinner with a student of architecture from France. The dinner was very good (accompanied by nice dunkel weizen (you gotta love the contradiction)), the museum was ok.
After spending quite some time there, I was notified of the fact that the museum also features a giant section of interactive installations.. which I was able to glimpse at for just 5 minutes before they closed. A lesson was learned; always check what's available.
The exposition on religion in the media was interesting, but, for me, not much more than that. Next to some good imagery (wooden crosses supporting spray-glue in cans with the text; 'NO MORE NAILS'. Simple but strong, for it demystifies but could also be looked at as rude and offensive, which makes you wonder what you actually believe) there where some nice installations.
A giant industrial robot arm in the process of writing down the bible on a scroll immediately called forth all sorts of feelings and made me wonder. The whole installation radiated serenity. The slow elegant movements with which the arm was inscribing the words on the scroll made it seem strangely organic and combined with the 'human' in the connotations of the biblical text made it a very appealing installation. brilliant how, although it was a machine, it gave the same feeling as when there would have been a monk writing those words. In the end we are just machines, but making that visible is quite neat.
The next day Martijn, Laura (the lady who joined us) and I went on a refreshing walk. Shortly before, resting my head on the shoulder of my lovely girl, I decided to not work together with them on the installation, for my interests lie elsewhere, and my preferences concerning style and content are in such a way different from theirs, that I feel I would only hold them back, so to speak.
They agreed on this, and it will mean that Martijn and I will not work towards the same end result, but nonetheless together. I will help (when asked) in matters technical and serve as sparring partner in discussions, and Martijn will also do the latter for me and help me code (if desired).
When we stopped in a street for a picture, I discovered an object that I like. I always feel strangely drawn toward mechanically produced mass products such as nuts and bolts. So finding something like that makes me happy and might even lead me in a direction concerning the design of my final product.
My final product by the way, will be in the field of robotics, and the connection of the physical world and internet/data.
