Frieder Weiss is one of the world's foremost designers of motion sensing software for interactive light installations used in music videos as well as dance, theater and artistic performances. He works with world famous artists like Madonna, Lady Gaga and Kylie Minogue, and with performance companies and institutions such as Chunky Moves, Sydney Opera House, the Shanghai opera and the London Royal Ballet. In the summer of 2013, Creativity Unlimited brought together Frieder Weiss with students at the Department of engineering physics, Chalmers University of Technology, in a project which aimed to combine teaching and tutoring with exchange of knowledge and artistic work. Working together with Frieder Weiss, the students were given the opportunity to design new software for an innovative, interactive artistic work – Flow – where sound, light, music and movement would mix to form an integrated perfomance. This digital performance would then be triggered and directed by people – on a few occasions professional dancers from the Gothenburg Opera Ballet, but more often through the interactions of the audience. The installation took place in an abandoned cinema in the center of Gothenburg. Whereas Flow was created on site, the interactive work Schlamp! (Slut!) had previously been shown in a few cities around Europe. In Schlamp!, a picture of a young girl in a tight, short red dress is projected onto the floor, allowing the audience to tread, stamp, jump or just walk over her. The girl then reacts to this 'abuse' in different ways. Schlamp! is a work by dancer/coreographer Emily Fernandez and Frieder Weiss. Together with Mattias Härtig, they form the group HypeCycle. The whole group was involved in both installations. Frieder Weiss Plays TecArt was part of a satellite project of the Gothenburg International Biennal for Contemporary Art 2013. The project continued and developed further after the exhibition, resulting in several fruitful collaborations between Frieder Weiss and Chalmers University of Technology. In connection to the installations, artist and lyricist Ralph Holmström presented his thoughts and reflections on relating subjects in a separate part of the exhibition room.
Frieder Weiss Plays TecArt was produced in cooperation with:
Chalmers University of Technology GIBCA – Göteborg Interbational Biennal for Contemporary Art Atalante Acquris Åke Parmerud (composer, new media artist)
