The title of the project for 2020 is MIND OVER MATTER, an English expression that can be compared to the German folk axiom DER WILLE VERSETZT BERGE <Pure willpower can move mountains>. The phrase is also used in parapsychology to describe paranormal phenomena such as psychokinesis. In the context of the exhibition and the lecture programme, which will be embedded in the conference DATEN-SPUREN of the Chaos Computer Club Dresden, questions of consciousness research, machine learning and the structure of self and self-experience will be investigated in particular. Since time immemorial, these questions have been projected in the context of science fiction literature, and film series such as Matrix or Westworld into futuristic settings, which try to solve the question of how mind and consciousness phenomena can develop and manifest itself within complex collections of matter, composed of the smallest atomic components by means of advanced technology. This raises several basic philosophical questions about the structure of being and time, which will be explored by means of technological and artistic experimental arrangements. Media art has been dealing with this kind of complex of questions since the outset, and in 2020 it is particularly relevant to reflect and speculate on the development of consciousness, both individual and collective.
 

Participating artists from India: Tara Kelton, The Collective and Anisha Baid

Residency is conceived and hosted in collaboration with Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Netzwerk Medien Kunst // C. Rockefeller Center for the Contemporary Arts and Walkin Studios.

​

Exhibition Venue:

The Technische Sammlungen in Dresden, which will be the venue for the exhibition with the Vernissage scheduled for November 13, 2020 is especially suitable as an exhibition venue for this nature of questioning, since physical and technical research on this complex issues is also pursued here in other formats and attracts a very mixed audience of young and experienced visitors with an interest in technology predominates.

The depiction of the artistic dimension of this question can be particularly successful at Technische Sammlungen, since the combination of media technology, information processing, perception research and cybernetics has been the central starting point for various educational and experimental formats in this museum for years.