KEEPALIVE
PERMANENT OUTDOOR SCULPTURE, SPRINGHORNHOF NEUENKIRCHEN, 2015
ARAM BARTHOLL (DE)
Keepalive looks just like a normal rock from the outside. There is no sign that the stone, which lies inconspicuously in Lüneburger Heide on the edge of idyllic Hartböhn, contains hundreds of digital books. An internal thermoelectric generator and WiFi router must be activated by lighting a fire under the rock before an electronic survival guide library can be accessed. Data and text can also be added by smartphone or laptop.
Aram is a media artist who works with paths of knowledge and information communication that work against the developments of the digital age and question our handling of data. In this and other projects, he undermines power structures and control mechanisms in the use of internet services and data transmission, mostly through the introduction of a random, uncontrollable element.
In Keepalive, the stone itself becomes the data medium. In a very archaic, but at the same time clandestine manner, information can be exchanged only locally — in contrast to networked servers, services and clouds worldwide, this rock is not connected to the internet. You have to get close to nature in the countryside, find the stone and make a fire to activate the data source. Anyone can do it once they have found out the exact location of the stone from either the nearby Kunstverein Springhornhof or another source.
Following the advice in the survival guides prepares you — this is the promise at least — for solo survival in the chaotic world of computer programming as much as that in the wilderness. Keepalive examines what 'survival' really means and sounds out our true needs. The work resists the centralising forces of the Internet, raises questions about the democracy of knowledge management and ignites an autonomy backlash.
BIO
Aram Bartholl's work creates an interplay between internet, culture and reality and questions how our taken-for-granted communication channels influence us. Aram asks not just what humans are doing with media, but what media is doing with humans. Tensions between public and private, online and offline, techno-lust and everyday life are at the core of his work and his public interventions and installations, often entailing surprisingly physical manifestations of the digital world, challenge our concepts of reality and incorporeality. Aram has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA), Skulptur Projekte Münster and London's Hayward Gallery as well as conducting countless workshops, talks and performances internationally. Bartholl lives and works in Berlin.