Kinetica Artfair

Michael Zeltner

Shifts exists in three parts: one, a sound-piece, two, permanent tattoos of the sound-piece's waveform, and three, a photograph combined with an audio-kinetic installation presenting the relation between one and two. On all of these layers the work is based on the premise of "shifting" the (artists) body closer to the mind and emotion.

The sound at the centre is divided in two: a slightly screeching slow knocking, starting on left and concluding on the right, which is joined by a loud, low background drone, progressing with subtle offsets on each channel. Together they aurally depict the ambivalent facets of dealing with change over the course of time.

Given the opposition and convergence of visceral and metaphysical being in the work, it required a departure from otherwise common practice in New Media Art. Connecting the use of code and electronics with analogue photography, human skin and blood were essential in giving the piece the body it required.

Altogether it forms a self-portrait, communicating a self-reflective sonically based visual reminder of the process of moving onwards. Shifts was created at Modus Arts Lab London, Noisebridge San Francisco and Metalab Vienna. Tattoo by Franz-Nikolaus Scheichenost, photography by Audrey Penven, mechanical consulting by Jonathan Moore.

Michael Zeltner was brought up by the art-technology-philosophy group monochrom in Vienna, Austria and is now based in London, UK. He's been best known for his work as part of the collective Graffiti Research Lab:
http://graffitiresearchlab.com, as well as his contributions to Ear Cinema: http://earcinema.co.uk/