ART CITIES:London-Hito Steyerl
Hito Steyerl is a filmmaker, visual artist, writer and innovator of the documentary essay film. Drawing upon topics such as media, technology and the global circulation of images, she sharpens the viewer’s perception of what is real through moving-image works and installations that combine found, filmed and digitally animated footage. Developed from research and interviews, Steyerl’s works inhabit the aesthetic spaces of documentary film and dream-like montage, while the extension of each artwork into architectural and digital space is key to the viewer’s experience. For her, artistic production and the theoretical analysis of global social issues are always closely linked.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Serpentine Galleries Archive
Hito Steyerl’s series of projects at the Serpentine Galleries is positioned around ideas of ‘power’. Beginning from the premise that “power is the necessary condition for any digital technology”, the artist considers the multiple meanings of the word, including electrical currents, the ecological powers of plants or natural elements, and the complex networks of authority that shape our environments. The series of six video sculptures featured in the exhibition, “Power Plants”, are generated by neural networks: computer systems modelled on the human brain and nervous system, which are programmed to predict the future by calculating the next frame in the video. The artist has used this Artificial Intelligence to create a series of “predicted” plants that are located precisely 0,04 seconds in the future, connecting to the visual landscape of the surrounding park. In one of the central rooms of the Gallery, four videos focus on the “Power Walks” program and emphasise the research process that is at the core of the artist’s work and her unique project for the Serpentine Galleries. In each of the films, the research partners who have contributed the data sets for the “Actual RealityOS” tell stories related to their perspectives on the local area and their campaigns. By including this in the show, the artist brings to the fore the voices and work of the project’s protagonists. The exhibition design is inspired by the idea of a ruderal garden: an ensemble of plants that grow out of waste ground, perhaps in the wake of human disruption or destruction. Predicted by Steyerl’s neural networks as a vision of the future, this environment is a garden rich with plants that have various ecological, medicinal and political powers. Using the medium of augmented reality “Power PlantsOS “, that visitors access through iPads suspended from the ceiling, Steyerl annotates her video sculptures with speculative descriptions of future plants, fictitious quotes dated in the future, and human testimony. Utilising a technology often positioned as beneficial to human evolution, the show reverses this promise, instead considering how such tools could impact our natural environment. The soundtrack, produced by The Vinyl Factory, accompanying the film includes a collaboration with British musician, rapper and visual artist, Kojey Radical and featuring Susumu Yokota, the former whose words and riffs help us further imagine the future into which the artist projects us. The vinyl text circling around the gallery walls is an encrypted text that cannot be read without the digital key to unlock it. This mirrors how augmented reality can serve as a tool to decrypt facts, to see what is invisible or, in a more literal sense, to unlock pathways into a future that may often be hiding in plain sight.
Info: Serpentine Galleries, Serpentine Sackler Gallery , West Carriage Drive, London, Duration: 11/4-6/5/19, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, www.serpentinegalleries.org
