Terrestrial Gardens
A
—
DIGITAL TRIPTYCH
BY CHRISTINA EHRMANN & CHRISTOPHER GRUBER
2023
terrestrial gardens - a digital triptych is a trilogy of simulations that shows a digital ecosystem. The location of the action is shown in parallel in the past, present and future and with its prevailing ecological conditions. The work consists of three interconnected episodes. The plot oscillates between the reliving of old memories and the emergence of new experiences. We become spectators in contemplating how the protagonists find their way in a constantly changing environment. Worlding is understood as a process that no longer understands the difference between subject and environment. The core of this work is the ongoing development of these stories with the help of intelligent agents (AI) and digital tools. The themes of negotiation are surveillance economy, revolution of work, virtuality, and climate change. The location of the action is in the Viennese Prater between a golf course and the Lusthauswasser.
Terrestrial garden as a fictional past simulates a community that lives with the threat of a flood and continuous heat. We follow Sophie, a young streamer who is trying to use her studio as a temporary shelter in these unstable times. She is in search of meaning in the ever-changing environment. The accumulation of streaming devices and streaming lights transforms the environment into built memories. Devices, cameras, and streaming lights pile up and clutter any horizon.
Terrestrial garden as digital evolution takes place in a distant future. Cities are now an accumulation of cells. The floodplain is now a fertile area managed by an artificial intelligence. Sediments are found while analysing geological features. Archaeological excavations point to another civilisation. The artificial intelligence sends Stuart - a machine being- equipped with all sensors and photographic techniques to analyse the remains. Stuart’s task is to get a last impression of the human under labour.
Terrestrial garden as semi-autonomous self now simulates the final moments of artificial intelligence, which has now evolved with the landscape into a kind of atoll. Remnants of machines, animals, inanimate things, and human beings form a landscape which now lives in coexistence. In this episode we follow Aslan a pigeon, which roams around in the new landscape and the new landscape and explores the new terrestrial and its and its inhabitants.
Atelier ehrmann:gruber is a collaborative and experimental practice for thinking and making space – founded by the architects Christina Ehrmann and Christopher Gruber in Vienna. The complex relationships between living beings, objects, and processes around us in space and the resulting practices, habits and rituals are the starting point for their explorations of space. Diverse experiences in the fields of architecture, craft, film, publication, building projects, installation, scenography, and exhibition design inform the work of atelier ehrmann:gruber.
Our approach to cinematic media comes through architecture. In our view, film is not possible without architecture. The wall in the cinema as the first direct level, the background in the film itself and the space produced by the montage in the brain are all indications for us that film and space are interdependent. We view film as a sequence of perspectives very similar to how we perceive architecture: A sequence of different perspectives in a temporal development.
In times of social, political, and ecological crises, there is a need for counter-designs to conventional forms of coexistence, which are indispensable. We can thus see a world through the eyes of different protagonists. The change of perspective is a fundamental prerequisite for us in our artistic and architectural work. If we now consider our environment as a constantly changing organism, this represents the basic concept of our work. Why do not film and animations change with it? Examining new media, which vary in real time and simulate stories, allows us to look at different situations and their situations and their development. Our reality seems to be characterized by surveillance and streaming services. The exploration of these conditions provides the cinematic material to reflect on a future worth living.
directors and authors: Christina Ehrmann, Christopher Gruber | sound: Vania Zers | speaker: Joanne | digital composition: Manuel Gruber | 3d modelling: Maximilian Pertl | scientific advisory: Beat Ehrmann | proofreading: Frieda Zapf, Dorothea Ehrmann | graphic design: Fabian Gwiggner
thanks to Pixel, Bytes + Film a funding program of the Austrian Ministry of Arts, Culture, Public Service and Sports (BMKÖS)
in cooperation with ORF III