artist in residence January - April 2005

Artist in Residence presentation Peter Frucht

Artist in residence presentation 17 June 17:00 - 19:00 h
The work is shown until June 25

Presentation June 17 by Yariv Alter Fin

With his Artist in Residence project ‘Stay Tuned’, Péter Frucht presents the content of the news broadcast in an unconventional manner. Images from newscasts are shaped into reportage in a virtual environment, lively and uncontrolled, misplaced in time and space: in other words, far from the dry style of the news. Images collide, blur, intermingle and stick fast to each other. While the newscast is the subject of his work, what one sees are not all news images, but advertising spots also get blended in. According to the artist, this is not coincidental: if someone wants to keep up with the daily news, he is forced to watch a large number of advertisements too. Ultimately, the news bulletins are nothing more than short interruptions in the flood of advertisements, rather than the other way around.

A collage is the most fitting description for this flowing together of images, which in contrast to the original form of the images in fact always remains current. When something appears on television, the next moment it is already history. Frucht’s images however constantly take on new forms and context, renewing themselves and blending with one another.



Péter Frucht’s installation is made from two projectors and a camera which is controlled automatically. Thus there is no relation between man and machine; the camera moves automatically in a virtual environment filled with images. The viewers however do have control over the images; they have the choice of which news channels are to be seen. With a configuration for Java3D it is possible to create a dual screen projection in which each screen can rotate 45 degrees over the Y axis. The effect is then an extended display that is not broken at a corner, but creates the illusion of being three dimensional. Viewers imagine themselves in the middle of this virtual environment, where images from ordinary reality move around them and flow over into surrealistic advertising landscapes. Because of the constant renewal and variation in the images, the world Frucht has created appears to go on eternally.

Péter Frucht comes originally from Hungary, but at the age of 19 emigrated to Germany. In 2001 he graduated from the University for Media Art in Cologne, and in 2002 his work ‘iow&’ was nominated for the Festival Award 2002 at CG-Arts, Tokyo. In late 2004 he became the artist in Residence at the Netherlands Media Art Institute, and is working there presently on his project ‘Stay Tuned.’

www.peter-frucht.net
www.peter-frucht.net/works/st/st_9.htm