Hito Steyerl's works critically examine the significance of audiovisual media and digital communication in a globalized world. Her installations have a high sensorial presence and at the same time take a stand in the current political discourse. The thematic links that she establishes are sometimes unexpected and humorous, but at the same time always maintain a high theoretical level.
The work "This is the Future" combines picturesque motifs, the generation of plant growth based on algorithms that predict the future, with reflections on the manipulative role of the Internet in terms of self-fulfilling prophecies. Steyerl's work quite naturally brings together forms of impressive, even overwhelming visuality with media-critical discourses.
This is the Future is a video installation, originally conceived for the 58th Venice Biennale. For Albertinum Steyerl developed a site-specific spatial configuration, which includes elements of other artist’s works. The film's narrative follows a woman, who sets out to find a garden that she had to hide in the future in order to protect it.
The installation also includes Power Plants: a multi-channel film — initially conceived for Steyerl's 2019 project at the Serpentine Galleries. The work features digital flowers generated by neural networks: computer systems modelled on the human brain and nervous system, which are programmed to predict the future by calculating the next frame in the video. The artist has used this Artificial Intelligence to create a series of ‘predicted’ plants that are located precisely 0,04 seconds in the future, connecting to the visual landscape of the surrounding park.
The installation is inspired by the idea of a ruderal garden: an ensemble of plants that grow out of waste ground, perhaps in the wake of human disruption or destruction. Predicted by Steyerl’s neural networks as a vision of the future, this environment is a garden rich with plants that have various ecological, medicinal and political powers.
The installation components included LED text panels featuring artist-written lines that describe ‘therapeutic’ properties of Power Plants — ironic remedies against autocratic political regimes or social media addiction.
The installation was purchased for the SKD by MUSEIS SAXONICIS USUI — Freunde der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden e.V. and transferred to the Albertinum collection in 2022.
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