Exhibition: More than human worlds of perception
How do animals perceive the world? The exhibition by media artists Kristin Jakubek and Leon Brandt questions our human-centric view of the world and will be on display in the Bürgersaal Konstanz from 6-8 September 2024. Researchers from the Cluster of Excellence Collective Behaviour at the University of Konstanz supported the creation of the artwork with scientific research findings and will engage in a public exchange with the artists in a panel discussion on 6 September 2024 at 6 pm.
‘Networked Beings - Parameters and Parallels’ is a captivating video installation with 360-degree spatial sound that combines media art and science in an immersive way. Viewers are transported into the fascinating world of animals and experience up close how differently they perceive their environment in their species-specific habitat. “Ten animals, including falcon, grasshopper, chameleon and carp, reveal their unique sensory worlds and take visitors out of their own human perception in order to question the human-centred understanding of our environment” explains artist Kristin Jakubek. The diversity of biological perceptual apparatuses is contrasted with the purely algorithmic data processing of artificial intelligence (AI) and viewers are given an insight into the purely mathematical processing of the world of AI based on data sets.
“With this direct opposition, the work raises important, contemporary questions in the field of tension between humans and nature,” says Kristin Jakubek. As nature no longer exists today without human influence and must increasingly make space for technological progress, the two non-human forms - animal and digital - and their way of processing the world through electrical signals are explored in parallel in the 24-minute video artwork. According to Hemal Naik, researcher at the Cluster of Excellence Collective Behaviour, he is not yet aware of any project in which artificial intelligence would actually generate impulses for animals. “However, the day cannot be very far from now,” he says. He immediately supported Kristin Jakubek's idea of bringing animal intelligence into the discussions about human intelligence and artificial intelligence (AI). A fruitful discussion emerged with regard to current research and the artistic view of the sensory perception of animals, which enriched both sides.
The artist and researchers would like to share this discourse with the public. For this occasion, an opening event will take place on Friday, 6 September 2024, 6 pm, as part of the exhibition, with an introduction by artist Kristin Jakubek. She and the producer and cinematographer Leon Brandt will then lead a panel discussion with researchers Armin Bahl, Einat Couzin-Fuchs, Hemal Naik and Anna Stöckl from the Cluster of Excellence Collective Behaviour of the University of Konstanz. The four researchers are investigating decision-making in animals and the sensory perception of animals.
Key facts:
- PLACE: Bürgersaal Konstanz, Sankt-Stephans-Platz 17, 78462 Konstanz
- TIME: Fri, 6 September 2024, 11 am - 3 pm, 5.30 pm - 9 pm, Sat-Sun, 7-8 September 2024, 11 am - 2 pm, 3 pm - 9 pm
- Entry free
The video artwork was created in exchange and with the support of the Excellence-Cluster Collective Behaviour at the University of Konstanz. The work was also supported by the Thuringian State Chancellery and the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar Women's Promotion Fund.