Group Show on New Media Art at Goethe Media Space, Toronto

TOUCHING FROM A DISTANCE II - Transmediations in the Digital Age

Commissioned & presented by the Goethe-Institut Toronto
Co-presented with Hot Docs, Images Festival & Digifest

Artists: Jonas Blume (DE), Manja Ebert (DE), Ornella Fieres (DE), Aron Lesnik (DE), Lorna Mills (CAN), Sarah Oh-Mock (DE), Julia Charlotte Richter (DE), Anna Ridler (UK), The Swan Collective (DE), Tina Wilke (DE).

Curated by Tina Sauerländer (peer to space)

Opening & Artist Talk: Friday, March 22, 2019, 6:30 pm

Goethe Media Space, 100 University Ave, North Tower, 2nd floor, Toronto, Canada

Touching From A Distance presents recent digital art works immersed into the book shelves and media hardware at the Goethe Media Space. All works deal with transmediation, the process of translating information between different co-existing media–analog or digital, written or visual. The concept of transmediation reflects our daily internet routine, as we stay connected via intangible yet visible information. The band Joy Division praised the effect of music conveyed through the radio with their 1979 song Transmission: “Touching from a distance...sound, that's all we need to synchronise.” Today, digital data reaches and connects us as we post images, create short videos, or use emojis.

The 10 featured works build bridges between literature, language, digital art or VR. Ornella Fieres explores the transitions between analog and digital imagery; Anna Ridler transforms Edgar Allan Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher into an AI animation based on the artist’s drawings; Aron Lesnik creates uncanny animations of people talking about the advantages of reading.

The exhibition is the 2nd version of TOUCHING FROM A DISTANCE, organized by medienkunstverein.com and Literaturhaus Berlin, curated by Manja Ebert, Tina Sauerländer and Peggy Schoenegge in 2018.

The exhibition includes a world premiere by Lorna Mills as well as 6 North American and 3 Canadian premieres.

Duration: Fri, 03/22/2019 - Thu, 05/23/2019

More information

Logos Toronto.jpg

peer to space at DIGIFEST in Toronto

Install view: Li Alin, Enter Me Tonight, House of Electronic Arts Basel, 2017 / Photo by Franz Wamhof

Install view: Li Alin, Enter Me Tonight, House of Electronic Arts Basel, 2017 / Photo by Franz Wamhof

VR projects at Digifest:

H.E.A.R.T. by Erin Gee and Alex M. Lee
Enter Me Tonight by Li Alin

Presented by the Goethe-Institut Toronto
Curated by Tina Sauerlaender (Berlin) and Erandy Vergara (Montreal)

At the invitation of the Goethe-Institut curators Tina Sauerländer and Erandy Vergara have selected VR works for this year’s Toronto Digifest, including two recent pieces by Berlin-based Canadian artist Li Alin and Montreal-based artist Erin Gee in collaboration with South Korean-born, US-based artist Alex M. Lee. The artists use humor and irony to engage in controversial topics: emotions in first-person shooter video games and war in the case of Gee, and a futuristic exploration on human reproduction in technology-oriented times in the case of Alin.

Further information here / Tina Sauerlaender on the Goethe Blog.