In collaboration with Natural History Museum, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz; Institute for Software Technology, Institute for Computer Graphics and Vision, Institute for Contemporary Art, Graz University of Technology and Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade. It was first shown at Marković’s solo exhibition “State of Nature” at the Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade in 2017.
Since the early 21st century, military, governments and private companies have frequently made use of rescue, surveillance and target machines. Starting with the removal of grenades in Bosnia and first usages in Iraq and Afghanistan, today massive and global implementation is growing rapidly. Current АI developments have made these machines capable of navigating in their surrounding environment, performing behaviours or tasks, self-maintenance, and of taking decisions with a high degree of autonomy. The video was filmed through the eyes of a rescue robot, “Wowbagger”, developed at the robotics department of Graz University of Technology. Named after the famous immortal character from Douglas Adam’s “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, the unmanned vehicle has won several international rescue robotics prizes. For this video, it travelled (semi-)autonomously through the depot of the Natural History Museum, an over 200-years-old, extensive archive of artefacts from nature. This collection is both a laboratory in which restorers and researchers work together and a testament to the scientific vision of modern society as a constant process of constructing images of nature. With all its sensors (electromagnetic, chemical, gas, temperature), various cameras (wide-angel, zoom, 3D, infrared, night vision) and laser scanners, the robot reveals, learns, records and defines the scope of its actions. A machine without humans and a space without life are a constant confrontation with the apocalyptic image of the human construction of the world.
Camera: Rescue robot “Wowbagger”, Staša Tomić
3D mapping: Rescue robot “Wowbagger”, Matthias Rüther
Machine vision: Rescue robot “Wowbagger”, Horst Possegger
Robotic machine operators: Michael Stradner, Clemens Mühlbacher
Editing: Studio Staša Tomić
Sound design: Jan Nemeček
Person with mounted animal: Michael C. Niki Knopp
© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, the October Salon Collection and the artist
Purchase Contract: III-5-22/01.02.2023.
Inventory No: 171
Photo:
Pic-1: Exhibition view, Shapes of Things Before My Eyes, Studio Neue Galerie Graz © UMJ /N. Lackner 2018
Pic-2: Shapes of Things Before My Eyes, film still © Dejan Marković 2017
Pic-3: Shapes of Things Before My Eyes, film still © Matthias Rüther/Dejan Marković 2017
Pic-4: Exhibition view, Shapes of Things Before My Eyes, Studio Neue Galerie Graz © UMJ /N. Lackner 2018
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dejan Marković (1983, Belgrade, Yugoslavia) is a visual artist whose artistic practice explores the dynamics of the exploitation of natural and human resources, labour conditions and the form of resistance, suppressed histories, and the construction of normative frameworks with the focus on micro-histories and socio-political contexts. The resulting immersive installations include an assemblage of different media such as film, photography, drawings, sculptures, everyday objects, and archival materials. After completing graduate studies at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, Marković obtained his master’s degree at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of the Arts in Berlin (UdK). From 2015 to 2021, he worked as an assistant professor, lecturer, and researcher at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Graz University of Technology. He has been a member of several working groups, organizing exhibitions and artistic events. He exhibits actively both nationally and internationally. His most recent solo exhibitions were held at Kunsthaus Graz (2021), Neue Galerie Graz (2018), and the Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade (2017). He lives and works in Belgrade and Berlin. At the 56th October Salon, Marković participated with the performative installation “I never stopped loving you”, created in cooperation with sport fan group, actors from the independent scene, and the Horkestar choir.
markovicdejan.com