HANNES RICKLI: Listening to Data. How the environment gets into the computer

The exhibition DATEN LAUSCHEN - Listening to Data presents multimedia installations developed by the Swiss artist Hannes Rickli (*1959) together with Valentina Vuksic, Christoph Stähli and Birk Weiberg as part of the artistic research project "Computersignale". They make climate research in the Arctic a sensory experience.

Since 2012, Rickli has accompanied fish ecologist Philipp Fischer on his field research in the Arctic Ocean off Spitsbergen. There, the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) maintains the remotely operated underwater observation system RemOs (Remote Optical System). Equipped with two cameras for stereometric measurements, the system allows the researchers to observe organisms in the water automatically and permanently.

The digital collection and processing of the data takes place primarily in spheres that are hidden from the human senses - in sealed optical systems, in submarine cables, computers and, finally, in huge data centers. Rickli's project is not only about collecting the researchers' raw biological data, which he rearranges, adds to and compiles in his own archive. Together with his team, he is also producing acoustic data that enable observation and reflection on the research process.

The exhibition is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation SNF and was created in cooperation with the AWI and the Kunstverein Bremerhaven.

DATEN LAUSCHEN was created as a cooperative exhibition between DSM and the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the Kunstverein Bremerhaven.