Garden installation with audio composition
Permanent exhibition
Sabine Schäfer, media artist, composer
Ulrich Singer, landscape architect
Zoological City Garden Karlsruhe
Opening hours: Mon –Sun 9am – 6pm
Presented as part of the Media Art Festival
“Seasons of Media Arts 2020”
11.09.2020-31.03.2021 mehr…
more about the festival and the UNESCO City of Media Arts Karlsruhe… mehr…
Can be seen from the bridge over the zoo.
Inauguration, 17.09.2020
with the artists Ulrich Singer, Sabine Schäfer, the representatives of the city of Karlsruhe (Susanne Asche, head of the cultural office, Lord Mayor Frank Mentrup) and the zoo directors Matthias Reinschmidt and Clemens Becker, chairman of the species protection foundation and the zoo architect Eva Kaltenbach (l.t.r.)
GREEN CODE Inauguration Zoo Karlsruhe 17.09.2020
Foto: Timo Deible/Zoo Karlsruhe
VIDEO CLIP of the inauguration on the Facebook page of the Karlsruhe Zoo
https://www.facebook.com/zoo.stadtgarten.karlsruhe/videos/420031198963228
The garden installation
On earthy ground lies the metal plate of a QR code. Grass is sown between the QR code gaps. The arrangement of the pixel squares forms the shape of a butterfly for the human eye. This stands iconically for the world of insects. The grass grows out of the QR code gaps. But the longer the blades of grass grow and push through the open spaces of the code, the more unrecognizable and illegible the code becomes. At some point, the grass is cut back and the process begins again.
One experiences the magenta-colored butterfly code changeably, sometimes it is overgrown, sometimes clearly recognizable. The connection between nature and culture seems to convey an additional piece of information to us here. Namely the fact that hybrids, if they have living parts, change in favor of one or the other part! In this case in favor of the nature outlasting all culture.
The audio composition
Via the QR code, shown on the adjacent work panel, the visitor can access the sound composition via smartphone/tablet. Take a “microscopic look” into the sound microcosm of insect voices!
The animal voices form the basis of the artfully designed sound compositions by Sabine Schäfer. The compositions change regularly!
Listening through headphones is recommended.
GREEN CODE Inauguration Zoo Karlsruhe 17.09.2020
Foto: Timo Deible/Zoo Karlsruhe