Ghostly Collector explores whether fiction can make new scientific innovations more accessible. By linking nanotechnologies such as DNA folding and protein design with artistic storytelling, the transmedia installation challenges the notion of object permanence. Ghostly Collector is a multifaceted ghost, whose identity figures through micro-performativity. In the installation it is represented as a 3D-printed DNA Origami that finds its voice through a poem reflecting on its desire to perceive light. This desire is translated into an exoprosthesis with help of predicted protein structures prompted by the poem. Ghostly Collector‘s desire for motion is captured in the drawing. The video shows how it shifts shape as an ice sculpture, melting from the artist’s body heat. Fascinated by the invisible forces shaping our world, the artist uses scientific techniques to develop virtual environments seeking to provoke thought about the existential implications of DNA Origami and protein structure prediction
Photo: Pai Litzenberger
Photo: Pai Litzenberger
Bio
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Photo: Chan SperlePai Litzenberger
DE
Pai Litzenberger is a multidisciplinary artist working at the intersection of art, design and applied science. Their artistic practice is driven by curiosity for the living. Pai creates narrative situations using a variety of media, which merge in expansive installations and performances. Features of technology, an atmosphere or a peculiar sound are playfully transformed into new experimental visions. Pai studied at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and has participated in various exhibitions in Europe.
Credits
This project was initiated in the framework of Funken Academy 2023, organised by Klub Solitaer e.V. in association with Frauenhofer ENAS. Special thanks to Julia Hann and Mathis Janßen (Fraunhofer ENAS), Jan Gebauer (University of Cologne), artist duo Carolin Liebl and Nikolas Schmid-Pfähler (mentors at Funken Academy 2023) and typographer Chan Sperle for his font Lucid.
This project has been developed and is presented in the context of the FUNKEN Academy project. FUNKEN Academy is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
