François Schwamborn: City Hall
Interview: Bettina Pelz. Published on 15 SEP 2024.
Mixed realities, projection mapping, and creative coding have become increasingly important in the visual arts. They open new possibilities for artists to express themselves and interact with spaces and situations.
Mixed realities is a term used to describe artistic working methods in which analog and digital dimensions are combined. Using a wide range of technical systems, the boundaries between the real and virtual worlds are blurred.
Projection mapping in art transforms physical objects and spaces into dynamic canvases. Artists use this technique to change the appearance of environments or architecture.
Creative Coding understands programming as an artistic practice. Artists create works that are not derived from the analog world but based on algorithms, data, or interactivity.
The boundaries between artists, programmers, and designers are often blurred in contemporary art practice. Many artists in this field have an interdisciplinary background or work in collaborative teams to overcome technical and creative challenges.
Mixed realities, projection mapping, and creative coding not only expand aesthetic possibilities but also challenge traditional notions of artworks. They often create ephemeral, site-specific, or participatory works that redefine the viewer’s role and raise questions about authorship, reproducibility, and the nature of the digital medium.
François Schwamborn is one of the artists who has been experimenting with these artistic working methods for ten years.
Hello François, and welcome to the GOLDSTUECKE. I am excited that we are able to show your video work, “Nervous Swimming,” at City Hall this year. Can you answer the following questions to give us a better understanding of your work and how you work?
— What is interesting about participating in a light and media art project in Gelsenkirchen?
It’s interesting for me to bring my artistic work to the outside world. Not only in another city, but also in the public space.
— How does the context of Gelsenkirchen influence your work?
In this case, the context has no influence on the work, as it is an existing work that is adapted to the location on site.
— Can you explain your creative process for this work, from initial ideas to concept and then realization?
Over the last few years, I have been working intensively with a recursive process that has enabled me to create organic-looking patterns from the cold calculator that unfold like mushroom growth. The idea here was to use a photograph of a swimming pool and remove the color blue from it. This is a process that is commonly used in television weather forecasts, for example, or to place actors in a digitally created background. I then replaced the color with the animation I described earlier.
— How do you approach the design of art in public spaces? What particular challenges and opportunities does public space present?
Working in public space is a particular challenge because you have to assert yourself in a colorful and possibly noisy environment. But I like the fact that you can surprise passers-by and also the democratic aspect that art is not only on display in museums. A bit like street art.
— How do you deal with light and media as media in your artistic practice? What prompted you to work with these elements?
Light is a medium that has a similar effect on me as sound. You can create moods with light, just as you can with music. I came across the medium by chance because I originally worked with moving images. This led me to use the projector as an intelligent light source to give the animations created in the computer an analog life, so to speak. An existence outside the screen.
— What technologies do you use in this work? How do they contribute to your artistic vision?
I work with a computer and a projector. These are my basic tools.
— How do you think light and media art will continue to develop in interaction with our changing world? What future directions excite you in this area?
I think that we are in a very exciting time with the development of AI, a time in which machines can do more and more tasks that could previously only be done by humans. This raises complex social and ethical questions. Of course, this also affects the world of media art. I deal with these technologies by incorporating them into my artistic processes, but also by questioning them artistically.
— To what extent does your work respond to or reflect current tensions, conflicts or crises?
I see myself as a post-constructivist. In my work, I deal with human perception and push its limits. For me, the limits of our perceptual apparatus are a symbol of the limits of our world view. Cubism is about a phenomenological view of a subject in order to depict its essence. By depicting a subject from different perspectives at the same time, the Cubists tried to represent something that is not visible to the naked eye. In my opinion, this is a good way of approaching a conflict. How does an American see his environment, a Russian, a Ukrainian, an Israeli or a Palestinian? If you superimpose these world views, you may come a little closer to resolving a conflict. My approach is to question human perception so that you also question your worldview.
— How do you balance aesthetic considerations, the focus on content and social commitment in your artistic production?
In my artistic production, the focus is very much on aesthetic considerations, which for me have a very high spiritual and also a moral dimension, I see the conceptual as a superstructure to my work, as an incentive, so to speak.
— How do you hope viewers interact with or experience your work? What would you like them to take away with them?
I hope that viewers will take the time to engage with the work. Because only with a little time will the work be able to unfold. I also see this work as a meditative intervention in public space, as a protest against the fast pace of our time.
— Are there any other works in this year’s festival program that particularly interest you?
I am very excited about the work of Tatsuru Arai and Marek Radke.
— Do you have any recommendations for the audience?
Take your time with us! You won’t regret it.