Jakob Rockenschaub. Hope intensifies delusion

07.12.2018 - 19.12.2018

KunstWerk e.V., Köln / Deutschland
Simultanhalle, Köln / Deutschland (venue)

Unwrapping the parcel I ordered from an online shop some days ago, my new samples of the high intensity discharge lamps have arrived. During the start up
time the lamp is gently emitting a constantly changing spectrum of light colors. Magenta-blue-yellow-green-orange, until it arrives at its working temperature. I’m
fascinated by thestrange moments of malfunctioning during the warm up period. The surrounding objects, hit by the light, appear in changing colors, varying
their contrasts, and blurring their surface depth.... It reminds me of the neighbors, who were experimenting with texture synthesis. Focusing on pseudo random
noise patterns, their experiments were linked to the perception of computer generated imagery. Their frustration was based on the lack of visual discourse withinthe computer scene at the time. They regarded it as artificial and inappropriate. Seamless noise patterns based on overlying different frequencies should produce better results in simulating water, forests, and clouds.

Appearing as a wrinkly landscape, its rough formations of ice are describing a barren desert. Grayish white vertices are distributed randomly throughout the fabric’s surface. Smoother regions appear out of the texture with gentle cracks. Within the harsh environment, you looked like a dark shadow against the rainy sky. The fine movements of your body broke the regularity of the building’s glass façade. The concrete floor around your legs was glowing in amorphous lines. A slight reflection of the exterior created further depths, ghostly filling the undefined void in between. Water molecules, dispersed in the air, were wrapping the space into dense fog, as they have been ever since I moved in.

Sensual pink noise is carrying me through the lobby of the complex. Massive concrete pillars are landing in a gridlike layout from the voluminous construction above. Harsh concrete is reflecting the pseudorandom sound in crisscross patterns. The changing intensitiesthroughout the scenario turn my movements into an unsteady condition, oscillating between seaside memories and the content of my paperback calendar. I’m approaching the gentle ramp leading upwards in an continuous surface. Circular alternations of changing sound accompany my movements around the helix. Round by round, changing from brown, to gray, to white. The repetitive oscillation makes me vertiginous, as if the vibration in my ear is the only map to follow. Walking from sequence to sequence, passing by uncountable anonymous doors. Private realms of other worlds.

Text: Fragments of „Emotional Response in the Uncanny Valley“ as published in Filmögon #3