List of projects by monochrom

Chronological list of projects by monochrom From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a chronological list of selected projects by monochrom, the Austrian art and theory group founded in 1993. monochrom's work spans performance, intervention, publishing, film, lectures, festival formats, and technology-based art. Over the years, monochrom has developed projects ranging from manifestos and activist interventions to telepresence and robot works, theatre productions, games, installations, conferences, and films. This list is arranged chronologically and includes projects that have been publicly documented in published or otherwise attributable sources.

Projects

  • Mackerel Fiddlers (1996–)
    • A radical anti-representation/anti-recording music movement that partially refers to Hakim Bey's Temporary Autonomous Zone. To quote the manifesto: "We set value on developing a form of viral resistance by systematic infiltration of symphonic orchestras. A New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (1984) could have been transformed by at least one Mackerel Fiddler and Austria's image would have been ruined worldwide. ... These days, self-production and 'embarrassment sells' have become the golden rules of media, be it radio, TV, or telegraph. Thus it is not only legitimate to be ashamed of ones activity as a Mackerel Fiddler, it is also thankworthy. Failure is beautiful! Disgrace is sunshine!"[1]
  • Schubumkehr (1995–1996)
    • A manifesto propagating "internet demarketing" and dealing with negative aspects of early net culture.[2] Paz Sastre reprinted and contextualized the manifesto in the 2021 publication Manifiestos sobre el arte y la red 1990-1999, published by Exit Media.[3]
  • Der Exot (1997–2012)
    Der Exot, monochrom's tele-controlled robot project (1997)
    • A telerobot remotely controlled via a web interface/chat forum. The robot was supported and operated by a large community. Its basic structure was built from remodeled Lego bricks and equipped with a fisheye lens camera. The project was presented at art festivals and technology presentations.[4][5][6]
    • monochrom relaunched the project in 2011, calling it a "resurrection", and emphasizing the social aspect of the work: "A mobile robot with a mounted camera that can be controlled via web interface. But that's tricky. If too many people try to control the robot at the same time it is counter-productive. ... Der Exot is the anti-crowd source robot. The users have to discuss and cooperate via a chat interface to communicate where they want to go, what corners they want to explore, what to crush." The project was presented at the Robotville exhibition of the Science Museum, London.[7][8]
  • Wir kaufen Seelen (We Buy Souls) (1998)
    • A "spirituo-capitalist" booth where project members attempted to buy the souls of passers-by for US$5 per soul. A total of fifteen were purchased and registered. These souls were subsequently offered for sale to third parties with a power of disposal.[9]
  • Roboexotica (1999–)
    Cocktail robot at Roboexotica 2007 in Vienna, Austria
  • Minus 24x (2001)
    • monochrom's pro-failure/pro-error/pro-inability manifesto, hailing the "Luddites of inability". It states: "Turning an object against the use inscribed in it (as sociolect of the world of things) means probing its possibilities. ... The information age is an age of permanently getting stuck. Greater and greater speed is demanded. New software, new hardware, new structures, new cultural techniques. Lifelong learning? Yes. But the company can't fire the secretary every six months, just because she can't cope with the new version of Excel. They can count their keystrokes, measure their productivity ... but! They will never be able to sanction their inability! Because that is imminent."[16]
  • Scrotum gegen votum (Scrotum for a vote) (2000–)
    • A form of political commentary for "about fifty percent of the population". Masculine individuals (whether in sex or gender) are seated nude in a special chair attached to a flatbed scanner. The scans then may or may not be sent to various politicians. The project won the NEBAPOMIC 2000 (Network-based Political Minimalism Counteraction Award) in the category of small country with political tendencies towards the conservative right.[17]
  • Soviet Unterzoegersdorf (1999–)
    monochrom's Soviet Unterzoegersdorf: Sector 2 game cover (2009)
    • In 2005 monochrom presented the first part of a computer game trilogy: Soviet Unterzoegersdorf – The Adventure Game (using AGS). The group presented the adventure game as a platform for communicating the concept of "Soviet Unterzoegersdorf". Edge chose the game as its "internet game of the month" in November 2005.[18][19][20]
    • In 2011 monochrom and Austrian production company Golden Girls Filmproduktion announced that they were working on the feature film Sierra Zulu. In 2012 monochrom presented the 16-minute short film Earthmoving, a prequel to Sierra Zulu, featuring actors Jeff Ricketts, Martin Auer, Lynsey Thurgar, Adrienne Ferguson, and Alexander Fennon.
    • In March 2009 monochrom presented Soviet Unterzoegersdorf: Sector II. The game features guest appearances by Cory Doctorow, Bruce Sterling, Jello Biafra, Jason Scott, Bre Pettis, and MC Frontalot.[21]
    • The project constructed the fake history of the "last existing appanage republic of the USSR". It was created to discuss topics such as the theoretical problems of historiography, the concept of the socialist utopia, and the political struggles of postwar Europe. The theoretical concept was transformed into an improvisational theatre/performance/LARP that lasted two days.[22]
  • Georg Paul Thomann (2002–2005)
    Georg Paul Thomann's grave in Hall in Tirol, Austria (created by monochrom in 2005)
    • monochrom was chosen to represent Austria at the São Paulo Art Biennial in 2002. However, the political climate in Austria, following the coalition between the Austrian People's Party and Jörg Haider's Austrian Freedom Party, led the group to create the fictitious artist Georg P. Thomann instead of appearing under its own name.
    • During the Biennial, the artist Chien-Chi Chang was invited as the representative of Taiwan, but the country's name was removed from his exhibition space and replaced by the label "Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei". Under the guise of Thomann, monochrom invited artists from several countries to show solidarity with Chang by giving him letters from their own name labels so that he could remount "Taiwan" outside his room. Several Asian newspapers reported on the performance. One Taiwanese newspaper headlined: "Austrian artist Georg Paul Thomann saves 'Taiwan'".[23][24]
    • In 2005 monochrom released press information stating that "Austrian artist and writer Prof. Georg Paul Thomann died in a tragic accident at the tender age of 60". On 29 July 2005 the group staged his funeral in Hall in Tirol. Thomann's gravesite remains in Hall, and the tombstone shows an engraved URL of the Thomann project page.
    • Georg Paul Thomann is featured in RE/Search's Pranks 2 book.[25]
  • 452 x 157 cm2 global durability (2002–)
  • The Absent Quintessence (2002)
    • Feature films were drastically cut and thereby wrenched out of their genres, including hardcore pornography, splatter, eastern/kung fu, and zombie films. By removing their "essential" scenes, the project reduced them to bare-bones plots and used the result to analyze narrative patterns and subtexts.
  • Towers of Hanoi (2002)
    • Members of the group entered a bank and exchanged 50 euros for dollars, then back again to euros, repeatedly until the money was gone. Afterwards the group calculated how many times the global amount of cash would have to be exchanged from euros to dollars until it vanished completely. They calculated that after 849 such exchanges using the global amount of cash, 18 cents would remain.[27]
  • Blattoptera (2003–2005)
    monochrom's Blattoptera – Art for Cockroaches. Cockroach in Andreas Stoiber's exhibit Traum mit bunten Glaskegeln, February 2003
    • Artists were invited to design a gallery space for a tribe of South American cockroaches. Each month a different international artist or art group designed an environment in which the cockroaches were placed, to act as audience for, and aesthetic judges of, the work.[28][29][30][31]
  • Brandmarker (2003–)
    • A project asking how well people remember the logos of large corporations that sell consumer goods, by having participants draw famous logos from memory.[32]
  • Eignblunzn (2003)
    • Members of the group prepared blood sausage out of their own blood and ate it ("auto blood sausage"). The performance was accompanied by political essays about the "autocannibalistic" tendencies of the global economy and has also been interpreted as a critical statement about art, art history, and the art market, especially Viennese Actionism.[23][33]
  • Instant Blitz Copy Fight (2004–)
    • People from around the world are asked to take flash photographs of copyright warnings in movie theaters. monochrom, in cooperation with Cory Doctorow, collects and exhibits these images as a copyleft and Free Culture statement.[34][35]
  • The Flower Currency (2005)
    • A project exploring a value exchange system created and owned by children, intended to enable artists to collaborate on interdisciplinary artworks.
  • Udo 77 (2004)
    • A musical about Udo Proksch, a criminal figure in recent Austrian history. Born into a poor family, Proksch rose to become a darling of Austrian high society before going to prison for sinking a ship and its crew in order to cash in insurance on nonexistent goods.[36]
  • 1 Baud (2005)
    • monochrom held workshops in San Francisco to teach participants semaphore communication techniques using the International Code of Signals. After several days of study and practice, the group staged a citywide performance to send messages through town at a speed of one baud. The project formed part of the Experience The Experience tour.[37]
  • Brick of Coke (2005)
    • monochrom created a "Brick of Coke" by boiling twenty gallons of Coca-Cola for a week until the residue could be molded into a brick. The performance and related talk dealt with the sugar industry, multinational corporate policies, and Coca-Cola as a symbol of corporate power. The project formed part of the Experience The Experience tour.[38]
  • Buried Alive / Six Feet Under Club (2005–)
    monochrom's Buried Alive at VSL Lindabrunn, 2013
    • In 2010 monochrom created the Six Feet Under Club, in which couples could volunteer to be buried together in a casket beneath the ground to perform sexual acts. According to a press release, the coffin functioned both as an "extremely private and intimate" space and as a reminder of the norm of exclusive pair bonding "till death do us part". The intimate scenario was mediated by a night-vision webcam projecting the scene onto an outside wall. Performances took place in San Francisco in 2010 and Vienna in 2013 and 2014.[39][40][41][42][43][44][45]
    • People in Los Angeles,[46] San Francisco,[47] Vancouver,[48][49] and Toronto[50][51][52] had the opportunity to be buried alive in a real coffin for fifteen minutes. As part of the broader program, monochrom members also gave lectures on the history of determining death and the medical-cultural history of being buried alive. The work was launched as part of the Experience The Experience tour in 2005 and later became a permanent coffin installation at VSL Lindabrunn in Lower Austria in 2013.[53][54][55][56][57]
  • Catapulting Wireless Devices (2005)
    • monochrom created a small medieval trebuchet and used issues of Wired as a counterweight to catapult wireless devices such as cell phones and PDAs over the greatest possible distance. The project was presented as an ironic statement about progress and formed part of the Experience The Experience tour.[58]
  • Farewell to Overhead (2005)
    • For The Art of the Overhead, an international media-art festival dedicated to the overhead projector, monochrom created the song Farewell to the Overhead, which describes the device as a form of "dead media" while nostalgically reflecting on its obsolescence.[59][60]
  • Growing Money (2005)
    • According to monochrom's press statement: "Money is frozen desire. Thus it governs the world. Money is used for all forms of trade, from daily shopping at the supermarket to trafficking in human beings and drugs. In the course of all these transactions, our money wears out quickly, especially the smaller banknotes that are changing hands constantly. ... Money is dirty, and thus it is a living entity. This is something we take literally: money is an ideal environment for microscopic organisms and bacteria. We want to make your money grow. In a potent nutrient fluid under heat lamps we want to get as much life as we can out of your dollar bills." The project formed part of the Experience The Experience tour.[61]
  • Illegal Space Race (2005)
    • monochrom placed the planets true to scale, with a 4-meter sun at Machine Gallery near Echo Park, throughout the Los Angeles cityscape. The group then conducted an "illegal space car race" through the Solar System. The project formed part of the Experience The Experience tour.[62]
  • Magnetism Party (2005)
    • In the form of a staged college party, monochrom deleted magnetic storage media using heavy-duty neodymium magnets. According to the group, the project was an attempt to confront an aspect of the information society often ignored by contemporary epistemological machinery: forgetting. The slogan was "Delete is just another word for nothing left to lose". The work formed part of the Experience The Experience tour.[63]
  • Arad-II (2005)
    Johannes Grenzfurthner of monochrom acting as a CDC official at a staged virus outbreak at Art Basel Miami Beach 2005
  • Café King Soccer (Café König Fußball) (2006)
    • In June 2006 monochrom created the art installation Café King Soccer at NGBK Gallery in Berlin. The installation dealt with the football corruption case surrounding referee Robert Hoyzer and reflected on football as a site of tension between working-class subjectivity and middle-class ideals of objectivity.
  • Campaign for the Abolition of Personal Pronouns (2006)
    • monochrom advocated the creation of gender-neutral personal pronouns, arguing in activist terms that there is a relationship between the structure of language and the way people think and act; compare constructivism.
  • Waiting for GOTO (2006)
    • monochrom's theatre project Waiting for GOTO, staged at Volkstheater Wien, took Waiting for Godot as its reference point and projected it into a science-fiction future. The play addressed everyday work in a neoliberal society, double consciousness, fragmentation, embodiment, and self-alienation.[66]
  • Lord Jim Lodge powered by monochrom (2006–)
    Lord Jim Lodge powered by monochrom, winner of Coke Light Art Edition 2006. A limited edition of 50,000 bottles was presented on 22 September 2006
    • The Lord Jim Lodge had been founded in the 1980s by artists Jörg Schlick, Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen, and Wolfgang Bauer. In March 2006 monochrom announced that it had assumed ownership of all trademark and usage rights to Jörg Schlick's Lord Jim Lodge and entered the Coca-Cola Light Art Edition 2006 competition. monochrom won the prize, and the logo of "Lord Jim Lodge powered by monochrom" was printed on 50,000 Coca-Cola Light bottles.[67]
  • Arse Elektronika (2007–)
    Fuckzilla at monochrom's Arse Elektronika 2007
    • A conference and exhibition series organized by monochrom exploring the intersections of sexuality and technology.[70][71]
    • Since its founding in San Francisco in 2007, the series has featured conferences, exhibitions, and publications on topics including pornography, science fiction, body modification, gaming, identity, and digital labor.
  • Sculpture Mobs (2008–)
    "New Kids on the Roadblock" by monochrom, an example of a sculpture mob in Graz, Austria, 2008
  • Der Streichelnazi / Nazi Petting Zoo (2008)
    monochrom's Streichelnazi / Nazi Petting Zoo, Vienna 2008 (left: Philipp Drössler, right: Johannes Grenzfurthner)
    • The group staged a public "Nazi petting" or "hugging" on a busy Viennese shopping street. The piece was framed as a political and ironic statement about Austria's Nazi past and the country's culture of remembrance.[n 1][74]
  • Hacking the Spaces (2009–)
    • monochrom published a much-debated pamphlet by Johannes Grenzfurthner, in collaboration with Frank Apunkt Schneider, offering a critical study of hackerspaces and arguing that hackerspaces had shifted from their earlier countercultural and micropolitical roots toward commodified geek workshop culture.[75][76][77]
  • Kiki and Bubu (2008–)
    monochrom's Kiki and Bubu: Rated R Us (2011)
  • Antidev – God Hates Game Designers (2012)
    • monochrom member Johannes Grenzfurthner staged a fundamentalist Christian protest at the Game Developers Conference 2012 in San Francisco, holding signs such as "God Hates Game Designers" and "Thou Shalt Not Monetize Thy Neighbor". The images circulated widely online and provoked controversy.[81]
  • Hedonistika (2014–)
    • monochrom's "smorgastic festival for gastrobots, culinatronics, advanced snackhacks and nutritional mayhem", dedicated to gastronomical robots, cooking machines, molecular cuisine, and experimental food performance. The first installment was presented in Montreal at the Biennale internationale d'art numérique.[82] A later installment was presented in Holon, near Tel Aviv, at the Print Screen Festival,[83] and another at Ars Electronica in 2022.
  • monochrom's ISS (2011)
    monochrom's ISS 2011; cast (left to right: Jeff Ricketts, Claire Tudela, Geoff Pinfield, Maciej Salamon)
    • monochrom created an improvisational reality sitcom for theater stages portraying the first year of operation of the International Space Station. The production featured actor Jeff Ricketts.[84][85][86]
  • Creative Class Escort Service (Kreativlaufhaus) (2015)
    monochrom's Creative Class Escort Service (Kreativlaufhaus), 2015
    • monochrom offered an escort service for creative workers such as writers, sculptors, curators, art theorists, filmmakers, and designers. The work was conceived as a public debate about working conditions in art and sex work.[87][88]
  • Occupy East India Trading Company (2015)
    • At the annual TEDxVienna conference, members of monochrom entered the Volkstheater in 17th-century costumes, carrying signs and pamphlets protesting the East India Company. The group intended the action as a commentary on the history of global corporations, especially within a corporate-sponsored event.[89]
  • Shingal, where are you? (2016)
    • Set in an abandoned coal mine near the Turkish border, the documentary Shingal, where are you? follows the stories of Yezidi refugees after ISIS attacks and the kidnapping of more than 3,000 women and children. The film was directed by Angelos Rallis and Hans Ulrich Goessl, with monochrom serving as co-production company.[90]
  • UZ Lab (2017–)
    • An exhibition and project space opened by monochrom in the former fire station of Unterzögersdorf, Lower Austria. The venue has hosted exhibitions and cultural programming and has been described as an energy-autonomous cultural center.[91][92][93]
  • Steppenrot (2017-2018)
    • A theatre piece, first staged at the komm.st festival in Styria and later performed at Theater Spektakel in Vienna. Set in December 1975 in the aftermath of the OPEC siege, the play combines a family gathering with references to 1970s left-wing militancy, including the Red Army Faction, Cold War espionage milieus involving the KGB and Mossad, and Austrian party politics through the appearance of a young FPÖ politician. Press coverage described it as a work blending musical theatre, family drama, and political satire.[94][95][96]
  • monocon (2018-)
    • A recurring monochrom convention / unconference. Press coverage has described it as monochrom’s own convention and as a more informal, subcultural counterpart to the European Forum Alpbach. Guests from the fields of art, culture, and technology, including Bre Pettis, Daniel Kulla, and Thomas Kaestle, have given lectures and workshops. monochrom also uses the format to brainstorm and discuss upcoming projects.[98][99]
  • Nekropneum Fuckenbrust Neckhammer 40k (2019–)
    • A robotic art and sex-machine project by monochrom. It was presented as a darkroom installation at the Meta Marathon festival at NRW-Forum Düsseldorf in 2019. Contemporary coverage described it as a deliberately non-humanoid, Frankensteinian mechanical device built from inexpensive sex-toy components.[100][101]
  • Anima Ex Machina (2020)
    • The novel Anima Ex Machina reflects monochrom's activity as a publisher. German science-fiction and fantasy writer Michael Marrak was invited to Vienna as an artist-in-residence in September and October 2020, wrote the novel there, and it was subsequently published by monochrom. The book was nominated for the Kurd Laßwitz Award.[102]
  • Masking Threshold (2021)
    • A horror drama film directed by Johannes Grenzfurthner and written by Grenzfurthner and Samantha Lienhard. According to a synopsis quoted by Rue Morgue, the film follows a skeptical IT worker who attempts to cure his hearing impairment through makeshift laboratory experiments.[103]
  • Razzennest (2022)
    • A horror comedy film written and directed by Johannes Grenzfurthner. The film centers on an audio-commentary recording session for the supposed documentary Razzennest, during which increasingly strange incidents occur.[104][105]
  • Hacking at Leaves (2024)
    • A documentary film directed and written by Johannes Grenzfurthner. It explores the United States' colonial past, Navajo tribal history, and the hacker movement through the story of a hackerspace in Durango, Colorado, during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Solvent (2024)
    • A supernatural mystery horror film directed by Johannes Grenzfurthner. The film follows a team of experts searching an Austrian farmhouse for Nazi documents, among them Gunner S. Holbrook, an American expatriate who becomes increasingly obsessed with the mystery.
  • Leben und Überleben (To Live and Survive) (2025)
    • A documentary film by Matthias Jaklitsch about Holocaust survivor Erich Finsches. Based on material collected over more than six years, the film documents Finsches's life, his experiences during Nazi persecution, his postwar rebuilding of a life in Vienna, and his continued public advocacy for remembrance, while also focusing on the relationship between director and subject.[109]

See also

Notes

  1. [1]
    A video is available within the monochrom site here.
  2. [2]
    Details of the CD can be found within the monochrom site here.

References

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