SELECTED MATERIAL NARRATIVES

  • 22/12/2023 New installation and article "Whale Falls, Carbon Sinks" with Carbon Aesthetics Collective (HKW, MPIWG) at CARBON exhibition, Science Gallery, Bengaluru.
  • 23/02/2024 book launch "Material Trajectories. Designing with Care?", in "Future Ecologies" track, edited with Léa Perraudin, Claudia Mareis, Matthias Held at Meson Press, at pro-qm, Berlin
  • 08/11/2023 Opening of the showroom at MoA Cluster, Humboldt University Berlin called Activarium with a new installation "Nebelschwelle" and "Cloud Apparatus 2023".
  • 03/11/2023 Presenting "Empires of Dust" seminar at University of Theatre Arts Ernst Busch Berlinin collaboration with TU Freiberg, Dep. for Geosciences, G. Heide, and Tropospheric Research Leibniz, M. Poehlker, Leipzig.
  • 19/10/2023 Opening "Airbound –Sensing Collective Futures" exhibition – co-facilitation, mediation, air expertise, and new performative-investigativee installations "Luftsäule" and "Gutes Wetter", funded by BUA Experimentallabor.
  • 19/07/2023 "Future of Life" Summerschool Co-Lead "Aerial Witnessing" at BioLab HfG/ ZKM Karlsruhe
  • 28-29/06/2023 Workshop "Intercultural Views on Matter" with Tongji University Shanghai. Talk on "Investigating Sky Rivers and cloud experimentaton in design and art".
  • 08-09/06/2023 Bühnenvorstellungen "Hybride Formen – Emission Playgrounds" at BAT Theatre Berlin with CollActive Materials, Klasse Klima UdK and PIK Potsdam












  MICROBIAL CLOUDS [COMING SOON]












  CLOUD APPARATUS 2.0 [2023]












  MATERIAL TRAJECTORIES [2023]












  AIRBOUND SCF [2023]












  WHALE FALLS CARBON SINKS [2023]












  EMPIRES OF DUST [2023]












  EMISSION PLAYGROUND [2023]












  DEEP MATERIAL FUTURES [2022]












  METABOLIC ARCHIVING [2022]












  STRETCHING PRACTICES [2022]












  PLANETARY EMERGENCIES [2022]












  SUSPENDED CARE-IERS [2021]












  NUTRITION CLOUDS II [2020]












  TAT OUR [2020]












  EXTRATERRESTRIAL MATERIALS [2019]












  NUTRITION CLOUDS I [2019]












  TRANSIENT TECHNOLOGIES [2015]












  CLOUD FACTORY [2019]












  FICTIONAL MATERIALS II [2019]












  PCLOUDS – METAPHOR APPARATUS [2018]












  NORMAL ACCIDENTS [2019]












  VAGUE SPACE [2018]












  TECHNO CATASTROPHES [2017]












  IT´S ALL JUST AIR... [2017]












  RE-CONNECT [2015]












  STATE OF MATTER [2014]












  DISASTER PLAYGROUND [2013]












  MATERIAL AKTIV DENKEN [2013]












  MUTABLE PROCESSES [2013-19]












  FICTIONAL MATERIALS [2013]












  METASOLID [2012]












  BLINGCRETE —PATTERN CONDITION [2012]












  FUTURE OF CARBON [2012]












  STROMREISE [2010]












  UNTER STROM [2010]












  SENSITIVE SKIN [2008]

^ Menu

NORMAL ACCIDENTS 2016-18

Moving Image, 6"30

To many people, the everyday world appears to be safe and reliable on a surface level, but constantly tumbles between stability and downfall below this surface and thus between a state of normality and a state of emergency. These two states, however, are only seemingly separated, as the possibility of accidents are always part of normality. Particularity in an increasingly technicised world, which is led by a desire for security and comfort, the downfall (nemesis) is always already part of the system, but is often suppressed by an overestimation of one´s technical capabilities (hubris). Although technology increases security in many instances it also increases insecurity, as accidents are immanent to any technical system due to technical failure or human error. In this sense, accidents are normal in any technical system. The world thus tumbles always between these two states, which becomes visible in the event of an accident.

 

When accidents are not viewed as accidental but as essential properties of technical systems, the event of an accident may reveal the true nature of these systems. In this regard, Paul Virilio has called for museums of accidents, as it would provide a more comprehensive perspective on the world compared to museums of achievements. In the event of an accident, a complex systems breaks up and reveals its parts and its relationships and that what was hidden in a black box becomes visible. In such an event, the familiar world and its habitual interactions break down and the things become visible.

 

The film Normal Accidents investigates the phenomenon of technical accidents by applying a forensic view on important historic accidents as well as a speculative view on possible accidents due to material events. It consists of a series of vignettes that provide a fragmented view of the respective accidents. These recreations of specific aspects and elements of the accidents render these accident visible as a latent possibility in the technical system. Furthermore, this close-up view on these accidents breaks the accustomed association of accidents with spectacular images and will thus allow to view them as ordinary rather than extraordinary events.


In collaboration with Björn Franke

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related media:
Perrow, C. (1999) Normal Accidents: Living With High-Risk Technologies
Sultan, L., Mandel, M. (1977) "Evidence"
Virilio, P. (2009) "University of Disaster"