digimag 09 - november 2005. rechenzentrum, new center of data processing

8/7/2019 Digimag 09 - November 2005. Rechenzentrum, new center of data processing

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New center of data processing - Marco Mancuso

NEW CENTER OF DATA PROCESSING

Txt : Marco MancusoPhoto: Ar ianna D 'Angel ic a

Rechenzent rum , a data processing centre. It's the best chosen name for anaudiovisual electronic experimentation collective, with that Teutonic touch usItalian, and not only us, are so fascinated by. All those who work and areinterested in digital art, have learned to know and appreciate this Berlin trio, thatfrom 1997 has made its own way acting as pioneers and watershed between artand electronic music, in such a way that now they are accused of having achievedthat sort of creative plateaux with more and more inactivity features or lack ofstimulus.

It would be stupid not to admit that the young discipline of audiovisual electronic seems to show more and more itsend, in creative terms, in relation to a growing artistic production and to a general technical equalization. MarcWeiser , music and programm ing, and Li l levan , v ideo and loop, are deeply aware of what is aroundthem, of how they get in short time to the necessity of a turning point, or of a deep artistic awareness, maybe similarto those who pushed them to write that programmatic document of audiovisual integration that has represented adogma for many young artists during the years.

ttp://www.digicult.it/digimag/article.asp?id=472 (1 of 6)06/02/2011 20.47.53
http://www.digicult.it/archivio/digimag_09eng/


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Without talking too much about their work and their audiovisual aesthetics with so many fans all over the world,perfect and subtle aesthetic minimalism, dada extemporising and live techniques and cut up, I prefer to let themexpress by their voice and their thought. A conversation which made me understand how, maybe, after many yearsof activity, the evolution of that Berlin data processing centre is much more than what a simple show could tell.

Marco Mancuso : You a re now a t Aud iovi s iva i n Mi l an and in t he l a s t yea r s you cam e manyt im es in I ta ly . I remember Rome , Pisa , Naples , Pa lermo and I am forget t ing somet hing .Wha t does i t m ean fo r you to c ome in ou r coun t ry t o pe r fo rm l ive?

Rechenzent rum: We have been invited to perform live in many places in Italy . We have always get on very wellwith the persons we met, they were open-minded and ready to know elements even culturally innovative, includingwhat now is electronic art. It is certainly true that there isn't a point of reference, a magazine like yours, anaggregative centre. Meanwhile, we feel that the public and maybe the media too, would be ready for a turning whichcould approach them to the similar reality of other European countries, even as far as art production is concerned.

Marco Mancuso : You wro t e you f ee l l i ke a t rue band ex p res s ing th rough audiov i sua l e l emen t s ,g iv ing the s ame impor t ance t o t he v i sua l and sound e l emen t s , kep t on the s ame l eve l ,t r ea t ing mus ic w i th a v i sua l approach and v ideos a s a mus ic i n s t rumen t . Bu t how do yout r ans l a t e t ha t c oncep t and th i s app roach l i ve? How i s i t pos s ib l e t o unde r s t and i t i n you r pe r fo rmance?



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Rechenzent rum: Well, we wrote a manifesto on what we think about audiovisual electronic experimentation. Atthe beginning of the 90's, many clubs started to show with the dj their videos and this happened in festivals too. So,soon we felt the need to write a manifesto of our approach to that work, explaining clearly that it is important for usthat music and image should be on the same level, creating a unique event that couldn't be replayed, as a sort ofextemporization in which the visual element is always on the same level than music and rhythm. Without controllinghow the public could react, but making it flow naturally. There isn't an excessive technical element in our work asmany believe; there is a human element, a lot of extemporising a great mutual vision of things. When we perform liveeveryone knows what the others are doing, we extemporise according to what is occurring on stage in that momentand according to our emotions.

Marco Mancuso : So , you ex t empor i se a l o t i n you r w ork and in your show

Rechenzent rum: The live performance has a strong vagueness component; even if we have many preparedthings very complex, with a computer we can choose effects already prepared in studio, mix them in the mostappropriate way, changing only some parameters and modifying rhythmic or effects. There isn't much synchronismbetween audio and video, we think there isn't anything more boring than synchronism, it's like a presentation of awork, there isn't any live element, and there isn't any improvisation and humanity in those shows. You just have tolisten to a Skoltz Kolgen live to understand what we mean.

Marco Mancuso : Many pe r formances i n e l ec t ron ic mus ic a r e cons ide red ve ry beau t i fu l bu tve ry co ld exac t ly fo r t h i s e l emen t o f p re -pa ra t ion

Rechenzent rum: We are in fact persuaded that presenting a unique performance is the most important thingtoday. It isn't something you can have when you are at home, but something you can enjoy only if you come to seeour performance. It's very different from a DVD.

Marco Mancuso : I know tha t some t imes you co l l abo rat e w i th o the r p ro j ec t s and a r t i s t s o f d i f f e r en t f i e ld s , li ke pe r fo rmers , dance r s o r c ho reographe rs . Which i s t he e ff ec t ive po ten t i a l o f t ha t app roach to your work ?

Rechenzent rum: Each one of us has always decided to follow other projects, collaborating with other artists andlearning from these experiences. I (Mark Weiser) collaborate with some contemporary music ensemble, modifyingthis way my idea of music, my way of making music become much less industrial and rough than it was in the past.You know, we don't expect to sell a million copies, we don't think we could become rich, we haven't a real label (MillePlateaux which published their work Direcor's Cut recently went bankrupt), and so, we rely on our experiences andon what really enrich us. We don't try to produce something that can sell, the most important thing for us is that we



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like what we do, and if someone else likes its better; each project finishes when an other is beginning.

Marco Mancuso : You a re among the f ew aud iov i sua l a r t i s t s o f a ce r t a in l eve l hav ing pu t on a

DVD one of your product s . What do you th i nk about the pot ent ia l m ark et of DVD for aud iov isua l e l ec t ron ic , does i t have any s imi l a r po t en t i a l t o t he mark e t o f e l ec t ron ic mus ic i nthe fu tu re?

Rechenzent rum: Our experience with Mille Plateaux surprised us a lot as we sold all the copies of the first print,anyway our label has failed. We must say that, honestly, we aren't really interested in following our shows on DVD athome, and I think it is the same for our fans, they prefer to follow the show live feeling the emotions. The DVD marketis important to promote you, as our recent projects of Scape, or even of Shitkatapult show, but not to sell your works.

Marco Mancuso : How do you r e l at e w i th t he g rowing and o f t en f r ene t i c h igh -t ec h app roach t oaud io -v ideo d ig i t a l expe r imen ta t ion?

Rechenzent rum: We must say our research pushes in a direction that is different from the super technologicalone marking most of modern experimentation, and from the attention of technical research or from synchronicrealisation of the work. Our aim, what we really like to do, is a human version of electronic audiovisual. We areinterested in choosing the direction in which we want to work in an autonomous way, not the one Sony or Pioneer orbig software production societies suggest us. So, even for this reason DVD is a support we don' like. In ten years allwill be different once again, for audio and for video supports, as well as for reproduction supports, without forgettingall we will be able to do downloading the contents on the net and making them available for mobile phones, atgrowing speed. This way, we risk content overproduction, musicians and video artists will have to be careful as allthese supports will need more and more contents, diminishing the importance and the impact of our work. It isimportant to keep in mind what we are doing as artists.



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Marco Mancuso : Don ' t you th ink tha t fo r you r ro l e o f a r t i s t s i s im por t an t even an app roach toyour work fo r com munica t ion beyond an exc lus ive ly ae s the t i c and emot iona l impac t ?

Rechenzent rum : As an artist you tend to work on different levels. I (Lillevan) choose the images for differentreasons, both because they are beautiful and because they communicate a certain mood. Pure aesthetics isn'tenough, even being abstract, for the reason why abstract means to look for the essence of the things. It is the samewith sound, it isn't more difficult and I don't think it is less direct in comparison to visuals.

Marco Mancuso : I w onde r why the mos t o f t he a r t i s t s dea l ing wi t h e l ec t ron ic m us ic , hav ing ag rea t po t en t i a l o f comm unica t ion connec t ed to i nc red ib l e t echno log ie s , don ' t u se i t t o mak esoc i a l o r po l i t i c a l speeches i n such a po ten t i a l l y d i r ec t and exp los ive way.

Rechenzent rum: It's an excellent question, with many answers. In South America , for instance, the situation isdifferent; many electronic artists have more attention in this sense. One of the possible reasons is that there are

always those sorts of messages everywhere and even if they should have very interesting contents to beemphasized, the risk of being banal is very high. When we were in Istanbul for a live, Usa attacked Iraq , but wethought it was banal to send messages as Fuck Bush in that moment. We aren't politics. Just think about hip pop,born in the American ghettos with precise social and political connotations, now it has become music for rich pimpsand black stars and it's not us to say it, it's Run Dmc in an interview in an American radio.



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Marco Mancuso : Bu t you admi t t ha t t he re a r en 't m any e l ec t ron ic a r t i s t s w ho ca re fo r t h i s k indof i ssues

Rechenzent rum : People with a pc are quite like aliens who aren't careful or interested in what happens in theworld. They are super minimal in their life too. Without considering that propaganda against war is now recognized asa series of good words without any meaning, something that is fashionable and that is necessary in order to feelbetter. It is obvious to say we are against war, but we know there are many contradictions in making propagandatoday; maybe today many artists are disillusioned, they are ready to make a revolution in an other way. Many choiceswe have made, such as performing in squats in Berlin , in festival with no money, against war, are precise choices.

But it is stupid not to think that many operations like last Live Aid are nothing but big commercial operations, not onlyfor Bob Gedolf who had contacts with 20 commercial televisions all over the world, but for the artists who sold millioncopies more or released new records as Pink Floyd or Madonna. We are not interested in this as the new generationof electronic artists.

Marco Mancuso : The re i s a g row ing a t t en t ion f rom the i n s t i t u t i ons and f rom the w or ld o f con tem pora ry c l a s s i c a r t f o r e l ec t ron ic pe r fo rming and in s t a l l a t i on a r t . Which i s you r app roach tow ards t h i s new t endency?

Rechenzent rum: In fact, artists like Carsten Nicolai broke down the wall because they were artists before thatbreaking point: they already had a system of art. It doesn't change much for us to perform in a club or in a museumor in a theatre, for the moment, the most important thing is that new subjects and young people were present in theprincipal galleries in order to emphasize what digital art is. It's a problem of generation change. But it doesn't changemuch for us, to project works for an occupied house or for a museum is fundamentally the same.

www.rechenzen t rum.o rg /

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http://www.rechenzentrum.org/http://www.rechenzentrum.org/

digimag 09 - november 2005. rechenzentrum, new center of data processing

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