debating AI-discussing society
Florian Mehnert © 2023
Debating AI - Discussing Society is a discursive participatory project inside an inflatable structure designed by artificial intelligence (AI).
"Debating AI - Discussing Society" opens the opportunity to discuss with AI experts and develop a future-oriented view on the integration of AI in our society. The goal of the project is to develop a deeper understanding of the impact of AI on our society."Debating AI - Discussing Society" works with the extended art concept of social sculpture in that each participant becomes the designer of the project.
ACCIDENT WORLD
Florian Mehnert © 2023
How do we define reality and through what do we construct our own perceptions and ideas of the world around us?
Accident World is an artistic social experiment that explores the psychology of voyeurism and the human fascination with destructive scenarios.
The project asks about the ethical implications of ki-generated images and reflects on a debate about the consequences of fake realities and the possible effects on individual and ultimately on social perception.
It raises questions about human behavior and emotional responses. By presenting a vast series of AI-generated photographs depicting fictional accidents and chaotic situations, the project aims to evoke different reactions in the viewer.
Do fictional images that seem real have the potential to put the viewer in a state of suspense?
Accident World stimulates a reflection on the nature of reality and the limits of our perception.
At first glance, it is unclear to the viewer whether what is shown actually happened or not.
Ultimately, Accident World calls for a critical examination of the source of the image.
read more
New Works On Chinese Paper
Florian Mehnert © 2023
Framed Work On Paper, Private Collection Hong Kong
Graphit, Chinese Ink, Guache, 150x180 cm, Florian Mehnert © 2023
The Art Experiment 11 DAYS
| WORK BIOGRAPHY |
The white lab rat, threatened by a weapon that could be triggered via the internet, was to live in Florian Mehnert‘s art installation for eleven days.
The internet world followed the livestream in an uproar. A worldwide shitstorm and numerous death threats followed.
The art experiment `11 DAYS ́ went around the world. How did the interactive art experiment work?
Why was the experiment ended on the seventh day instead of the eleventh?
Was the audience itself the lab rat in the end?
Florian Mehnert publishes for the first time what really happened.
`11 DAYS´ gives a frightening insight into a society controlled by aggression and hatred.
Available in bookstores.
ISBN: 9783750494503
more about the project 11 DAYS
Florian Mehnert © 2023
NEW PHOTOGRAPHS, Hong Kong
Florian Mehnert © 2023
New Works On Paper
Graphit, Chinese Ink, Guache, 150x180 cm, Florian Mehnert © 2023
Publication FREEDOM 2.0
now available in bookstores
ISBN 9783756827701
> more about the project FREIHEIT 2.0
Florian Mehnert © 2022
Projection, Long Night of the Museums, June 2022 Stuttgart
3D animation of moving profiles created by users of the App FREEDOM 2.0., Florian Mehnert © 2022
DATA TO LIGHT
permanent light installation, Stuttgart
Der Landesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit, Lautenschlagerstr. 20, Stuttgart, 3. + 4. OG
# more about data to light
Florian Mehnert © 2021
Florian Mehnert © 2021
Social Distance Stacks Stuttgarter Ballett
Making Of Social Distance Stacks, Stuttgarter Ballett, Florian Mehnert © 2021
Februar 2021
Social Distance Stacks, Stuttgarter Ballett, Florian Mehnert © 2021
prints of limited edition available in various formats on request: studio@florianmehnert.de
Social Distance Stack
Social Distance Stacks deals with the omnipresent situation of social distance in the Corona Pandemic. For the project "Social Distance Stacks", the artist will have people step into a transparent inflatable and sealable PVC air bubble and arrange and photograph the bubbles.
How does the necessary distance to others in the Covid-19 pandemic affect people? How important is social proximity, coming together and meeting as a component of social interaction in a society? How important are the welcoming rituals; the shaking hands, getting close to each other, hugs, friendly kisses on the cheek? How does the individual feel when rituals of public social proximity are not possible? Is the lack of proximity a burden on society or even a liberation for some? The retreat into social distance leads to a strong increase in digital communication and reception. What are the advantages, but also the difficulties and dangers? Will this situation lead to changes in society? The photo project makes the social distance in the exceptional situation of the Corona Pandemic visible, and creates a platform for discussion and discourse.
# more about Social Distance Stacks
# MAKING OF STATE COMMISSIONER FOR DATA PROTECTION BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG , 28.10.2020
supported by
November 2020, Outdoor
How important are the welcoming rituals; the shaking hands, getting close, hugs, friendly kisses on the cheek? How does the individual feel when rituals of public social proximity are not possible?
Oktober 2020, MAKING-OF Landesbeauftragter für den Datenschutz, BW
The retreat into social distance leads not only to painful effects in social interaction with one another, but also to a greatly increased digital communication and reception.
Insight into the first series of woodcuts
Since 2016, the app of the art project FREIHEIT 2.0 has been collecting anonymous movement profiles of its users via their smartphones. The app makes the invisible movements of its users visible.
A movement profile says a lot about a person. About your whereabouts, about how long you stay in one place, about your radius of movement and also about whom your are currently meeting. Motion profiles make our social environment visible. They show who we are friends with and what habits we have every day.
Additional metadata create deep insights into the private life of a person and enable perfect monitoring of each individual and a whole society. It is man's highest good, his dignity and freedom, which are destroyed by tracking technologies.
SMARTPHONE STACKS is an artistic photo project. Florian Mehnert has stacked and photographed young people with their smartphones. (see also photo project REFUGEE STACK, 2016)
Behind the art project SMARTPHONE STACKS are important current questions:
Today, the smartphone is the main means of communication of the "digital natives". Much of the exchange takes place via WhatsApp, Snapchat and Instagram.
In what ways are smartphones changing not only the way we communicate, but also the quality of our communication?
Are Whatsapp and Instagram replacing differentiated discourse and personal conversation?
90% of over 959,000 apps in Google's Play Store track user behavior and deliver the data to a third-party network.
We live in the age of "surveillance capitalism" and the "privacy paradox".
Although we are aware of the destruction of our privacy and dignity, we agree to the collection of our behavioural data.
The SMARTPHONE STACKS visualize how the human being is reduced to a data raw material to be calculated.
They create a visual access to reflect on the role of the smartphone and our privacy.
Deutschlandfunk, 02.08.2019
"Humans as data raw material", Florian Mehnert in the corso discussion (interview in german language)
The publication (partly in three languages: D, E, F) gives a deep informative insight into the art project FREEDOM2.0.
The exhibition of the Smartphone Stacks was opened on 27.9.2019 with a panel discussion moderated by Florian Mehnert. Three models of the project discussed together with Dr. Stefan Brink (State Commissioner for Data Protection of Baden-Württemberg) and Prof. Dr. Horst Niesyto (Media Education) about the handling of the smartphone in the age of the privacy paradox. How important is privacy for the digital natives? For which moments does the analogue remain important?
Florian Mehnert's works of art are always also social criticism. This time, the artist piled up young people with smartphones on the roof of a building.
© Stiftung Genshagen
On June 20, 2019, around 80 experts met at the Genshagen Foundation to discuss the effects of digital change in art, culture and society.
Florian Mehnert spoke here about "Dataism versus freedom 2.0".
Positions from the contemporary arts, cultural education and educational research were presented and brought into dialogue with political education. Spaces for design that make new experiences possible through the arts and education were explored, the fusion of the digital and analog worlds into new hybrid forms was identified, digital maturity was controversially discussed, and phenomena associated with digitization, such as the need to reorganize hierarchies, were discussed.
Straßbourg, February 14th, the Center for International Intellectual Property Studies of the University of Strasbourg organized in partnership with the Strasbourg Biennale of Contemporary Art a round table on the topic “Adapting Copyright to the Digital Environment in the EU: the impossible reform?”. The round table took place at the Café of the Strasbourg Biennale of Contemporary Art, Hôtel des Postes, within the framework of the Biennale dedicated to the citizen in the digital world. Florian Mehnert was talking togehter with Julia Reda, Prof. Christophe Geiger, Yasmina Khouaidjia and Giancarlo Frosio.
Construction of the installation Humantracks (2014) at the 1st Biennale in Strasbourg Hôtel de la Poste, Rue Wencker until March 03, 2019
The series of events presents and discusses one artistic work on the topic of Big Data on each of three evenings at the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf. The first event on October 12, 2018 was hosted by the artist Florian Mehnert, who has repeatedly addressed the visualization and criticism of Big Data phenomena in his artistic work in recent years. The event was moderated by Dr. Harald Gapski (Grimme Institute). The event series Art & Algorithms was organized by Prof. Manuel Zahn (University of Cologne) and Dr. Harald Gapski (Grimme Institute) in cooperation with the NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf. The series was sponsored by the Grimme Research College at the University of Cologne.
FREIHEIT 2.0, June 2018, Stuttgart
Over a period of 4 weeks Florian Mehnert intervened in public space with his project FREIHEIT 2.0 Stuttgart. His data traces were virtual and analogous on the streets through the city center up to the newly opened Stadtpalais. For 4 weeks the interdisciplinary BIG DATA colloquia with speakers from the scientific community accompanied the project.
Projections of the movement profiles of the users of the app FREEDOM 2.0, StadtPalais, Stuttgart
“The Beauty of Privacy” is a project that aesthetically processes and visualizes human motion profiles. Motion profiles are one of the most coveted data in the BIG DATA industry. They are collected every day by means of Smartphone Apps, Fitnesstrackers and Automobiles. The motion profiles of “The Beauty of Privacy” are from anonymous users of the app FREEDOM 2.0, which is part of art project of the Florian Mehnert with the same name. “The Beauty of Privacy” shows the aesthetic side of the disputed personal data: the beauty of the abstraction that anonymous motion profiles develop without georeferenced reference in their artistic processing.
11 DAYS Florian Mehnert talks about his artexperiment "11 DAYS" in Barcelona. (english)
Florian Mehnert stacks African refugees. The stacks are his artistic response to current events. The REFUGEE STACK points out that behind every refugee is a personal story, an individual fate, a person with abilities and dreams.
C/O Berlin, FOREST PROTOCOLS Installation © Foto: David von Becker
As a reaction to the NSA scandal, Florian Mehnert had installed microphones at clearings and paths in german forests over days in 2013. His installed microphones, were recording passing by walkers.
# Deutschlandradio Kultur, 16.02.2017, Interview with Florian Mehnert