SYLVIA
ECKERMANN
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Biography (download.PDF)

Biografie in deutsch  

Sylvia Eckermann   
lives and works in Vienna.

Eckermann has been working in the field of electronic arts since 1989. She creates complex multimedia worlds that the viewers experience in real as well as virtual space. She develops her artworks from concepts of spatiality to communicate immersive experiences that involve situations in which the viewers turn into actors-players inside an audio-visual environment.

 

Interactive installations and media related artworks realized in e.g. Vienna, Wien Museum A 1991, Kunsthalle Wien A 1993, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Bolzano I 1993, Ateneum Museum of Art, Helsinki FI 1994, Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts Norwich GB 1995, O.K Center of Contemporary Art Linz A 1998, Landesmuseum Linz A 1998, KIASMA Museum moderner Kunst Helsinki FI 2003, ZOOM, Museums Quarter, Vienna A 2005, Museum Arbeitswelt Steyr A (permanent Installation since 2006), Linzer Landesgalerie, Linz A 2007, ars electronica 2007, Museum Stein, Krems A 2008 - 2009, MKL | Kunsthaus Graz 2009.

 

Commissioned work for ISEA94 and ISEA04, EAST, Millennium Dome London, Cultural Capital of Europe Graz 2003.

 

Sylvia Eckermann has pioneered in the field of artistic use of game engines in various game art installations. (synworld, ISEA, games-computerspiele von KünstlerInnen, GameArt, artgames, cyber@rt, medi@terra)


2012 Austrian State grant for Video- and Mediaart

2010 File Prix Lux, Electronic Language Festival, São Paulo, TIYF! nominated

2008 Austrian Federal Artist in Residence grant, Peking, China

2005/06 Austrian Federal Artist in Residence grant, Chengdu, China

2000/01 Lecturer for Game Design at Sibelius Academy Helsinki, Finland

1999 Austrian Federal Artist in Residence grant, London, GB

1998 Austrian Federal Artist in Residence grant, Durham, Canada

1996 Austrian Federal Artist in Residence grant, Fujino, Japan

1992 participation in Progetto Civitella d'Agliano 92, Italy

1989-2004 Member of the Artist Group fuchs-eckermann

1987-1989 Member of the Artist Group Gangart

 

 

Shows / Works

 

2012

2013

PROBABILIS

Solo Exhibition
kunstraum BERNSTEINER, Schiffamtsgasse 11, 1020 Vienna

Dec 6th 2012 - Feb 16th 2013

 

Crystal Math.
1-channel video installation
kunstraum BERNSTEINER / im Basement Feb 29 – April 25 2012

paraflows, das weisse haus, Argentinierstr. 11, Vienna / 13.9. - 20.10. 2012

 

Telluric Force
Computer Animation, 2.0 Sound, Plasma-Screen, wooden Frame, 90 x 150 cm
PARKFAIR 2012 ARTE NOAH, September 19–23, 2012, Vienna, Austria

 

Sound of Sirens http://www.sound-of-sirens.net
a social platform / video portal
March 11th 2012 is the anniversary of the earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear disaster having hit northeastern Japan. For this reason, the two artists Edgar Honetschläger and Sylvia Eckermann have created a video platform on the Internet, entitled SOS = Sound of Sirens. The platform urges people worldwide to reflect on the disaster and its aftermath in cinematic form.

 

2010
2011

naked eye

mixed media installation
from Dec 1 2010 to Jan 22 2011

kunstraum BERNSTEINER, 1020 Vienna AT

 

Reigen

Digital video, site-specific installation, Dorotheum Vienna 2010
Installation for the opening of " Vienna Art Week" 2010


Breathe My Air Phase II - a paradoxical conversation piece

3-channel video installation
Four Zero Space, Hangzhou in cooperation with Shanghai eARTS CN, Curator: Li Zhenhua, Sep 2010

2009

The Trend Is Your Friend!

A performative and interactive experimental set up

 

Gerald Nestler: Artistic Research, Peter Szely: Sound architecture

Market modelling based on the double auction (Vernon L. Smith) by Wolfgang Hoechtl.

 

Trends are all the trend. Alongside fashion and health it is analyses of economic trends and flows of finance and commodities which are shaping our environment. To what extent do they influence and change us as individuals and as a society? By recognising and relying on trends do we become part of an economisation that promises profit but at the same time absorbs us? Does the individual who opposes the trend get even socially marginalised? Is the titular "friend" in a knowledge-based society therefore an updated manifestation of what Orwell termed Big Brother? A new, if more complex uniformity of control that denies us future with its hubris of calculability? The installation "The Trend Is Your Friend" invites us to participate in an experimental set-up of markets to think through these questions for ourselves. With the aid of our senses, we dive into a playful environment in virtual space while our bodies remain in the real.

 

Produced by: MKL | KunsthausGraz
In co-operation with: steirischer herbst

Institut für Elektronische Musik und Akustik (KUG) & Institut für Maschinelles Sehen und Darstellen (TU Graz)

26/09 - 08/11 2009

 

2008

Breathe My Air

3 channel video installation

an art project on intellectual and social environments and their relations.

in co-operation with Gerald Nestler


2009 Mifan, VENUE_Room 208, NO.A3 Industrial Park-East, Shenzen, CN >>

2009 Mifan, organised by ASAP, curated by Karel Dudesek, AnniArt Gallery, 798 Dashanzi Art District, Beijing, CN >>

2008 project launch at CPU:798, Beijing/CN


This launch represented the beginning of phase II of Breathe My Air, which began with a series of recorded interviews in Vienna, Austria, investigating contemporary thinking on progress, change and utopia in Europe and China, by European artists and cultural workers who have direct experience of both.
The second phase, launched at CPU:798, was built on these interviews, soliciting input from Chinese artists and cultural workers who have experience of Europe.


2008

In Ninth Heaven

An Interactive Synthetic Scape

Gerald Nestler: Artistic Research, Peter Szely: Sound

Museum Stein, Krems / A — Sep 2008 - Sep 2009, curated by Dieter Buchhart

 

2007

Spiegelzellen | Mirror Cells
Mirror Cells is an interactive installation that turns around our perception of space and time. The gamers as well as the
visitors are immersed inside an infinitely mirrored acousmatic-visual 3d-world.


Peter Szely: Acousmatic Space Composition, Doron Goldfarb: Programming, Unreal scripting.
Acting in Utopia, Linzer Landesgalerie, Linz A (06.09. - 09.11.2007)

curated by Anna Karina Hofbauer and Dieter Buchhart

Mirror Cells was a feature project of ars electronica 2007


2006

plastic trade-off
a meta-performative game in real-time an intervention into financial markets
in cooperation with Gerald Nestler

permanent installation at WORKING_WORLD.NET Living and working in the midst of globalization, Museum Arbeitswelt Steyr A (2006-2011)

 

2006 —
2005

n o w h e r e

an interactive audio-visual 3D-Collage

n o w h e r e was created around the utopian ideas of a group of architects and artists that lived in Berlin and other parts of Germany and communicated by way of letters. They believed in the possibility of changing society through Architecture and Art. This exchange was named "Die Gläserne Kette" (The Glass Chain) and was conducted in secret in the years 1919 20.

Artistic Research: Gerald Nestler, Composition: Christof Cargnelli, Interface Design Production: Oliver Irschitz , commissioned by: thecrystalweb

Oct 4 - 8 2006
Sept 28 - Oct 1 2006
April 8 - May 7 2006
March 3 - April 22 2006
Oct 20 - Nov 20 2005
  media@terra, International Art + Technology Festival, Athens GR
  3rd International Digital Art Festival, Changzhou CN
  11-ART.COM 798 Arts District, Beijing CN >
  aut. architektur und tirol, Innsbruck A >
  Heiligenkreuzer Höfe, Vienna A


wet f{r}iction
digitale video 70' Loop
3rd International Digital Art Festival, Changzhou CN

 

RAUMATMEN an audio visual installation
Sound: Peter Szely
Sep 2005 - March 2006 Kindermuseum ZOOM, Museumsquarter, Vienna A


MIRRAGE a sight-specific interactive feedback circuit, GameMod
Sound: Peter Szely
Oct. 2005, Museumsquarter - Tonspur, Vienna A


reservoir_bots v.3 GameMod for a VJ+DJ life performance, NetBase t0 Vienna A
an audio-visual interactive feedback circuit.
4 channel soundsystem: Peter Szely

2004

reservoir_bots v.2 GameMod for a VJ
DJ: Electric Indigo

 

reservoir_bots v.1 an interperformative Installation at the Künstlerhaus Wien Vienna A
Sound: Christof Cargnelli


1989 - 2003 fuchs-eckermann (Sylvia Eckermann & Mathias Fuchs) Website 89-03 >

2004

fluID - arena of identities GameMod, ISEA2004 KIASMA Helsinki FI
This game is about finding your identity (if you have got one), to change your identity, to steal or borrow another person's identity or to destroy identities.

FUTURE DJ GameMod for DJs Manchester GB, collaboration with "music is better".

FemCity, a Multi-user Computer Game about careers, lifestyle, dreams and realities of young women.
"FemCity" is a simulation of a complex social and economic environment, which young women find themselves in, when designing their future. "FemCity" was developed in collaboration with Edeltraut Hanappi-Egger and Gehard Hanappi

and commissioned by the Bureau of women's Affairs, Vienna A

2003 FluID - arena of identities GameMod, Selfware, politics of identities, Graz2003 A

2002 EXPOSITUR - a Virtual Knowledge Space GameMod, KIASMA Helsinki FI
In constructing a virtual museum we changed, the logical structure and the aesthetics of a museum from scratch. We wanted to build a museum maze, a crossword puzzle of objects and stories, an audio-visual "Wunderkammer" and a hypermuseum based upon a computer game.

2001 EXPOSITUR - a Virtual Knowledge Space GameMod, Vienna A (Unternehmen Capricorn, Christoph Steinbrener)

2000 LEVELBOSS ON HOLIDAY Synchronized mpeg2-Clips, Bregenz A (curated by Unit-f)

PLAN-it! an Interactive Multisensory Environment, Millennium Dome London GB (curated by Zaha Hadid)
PLAN-it! is an installation connecting a spatial with an aesthetic and an intellectual experience. PLAN-it! presents artistic statements to answer 4 questions regarding our social and personal futures. These questions focus on the topics of communication, work, material things and transport [especially flight]. (collaboration with Herbert Lachmayer, Art+Tek Institute Linz A)

HOTEL SYNTHIFORNIA GameMod, Public Netbase Vienna A, (SYNWORLD curated by Konrad Becker)

1998 SOUNDCALENDAR collaborative international web art-project Toronto CA

PATCHWORK - PATCHLIFE mixed-means installation, Work & Culture, Landesmuseum Linz A
in collaboration with Herbert Lachmayer

<vspace="4"> audio-visual installation for an elevator, O.K Center of Contemporary Art Linz A
Archiv X, curated by Elke Krasny and Elisabeth Madlener

1997 SELFCONTAINED phone terror project, Public Netbase Vienna A

BAD ROOM radio phonic composition (To Hear is to See, curated by Gue Schmidt)

JAPAN DIARY images and sounds of a journey to Japan - a netart project

BAD ROOM audio visual installation, Muu Media Base, Helsinki FI (curated by Tuike und Simo Alitalo)
1995 ALIENS web art, Diagonale, Salzburg A, (curated by Konrad Becker)

JUMPING video & sound installation, Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts Norwich GB
EAST selectors: Marian Goodman, Giuseppe Penone

1994 MOON RIVER underwater installation, Titanik Gallery, Turku FI (ELSEWHERE, curated by Tuike and Simo Alitalo)

LINK III para-realistic staircase, Ateneum Museum of Art, Helsinki FI (ISEA94)

1993 REWIND interactive computer installation, Mediagalleria, Turku FI (SAFE, curated by Tuike and Simo Alitalo)

LINK para-realistic staircase, Kunsthalle Vienna A and Museum of Modern Arts Bolzano IT
SOUND, curated by Marisa Vescovo

1991

ENTRÉE SORTIE shared authorship composition

Galerie Theuretzbacher, ORF Kunstradio, Vienna A and Instituto d. Bellas Artes Mexico City MEX

WIEN 1991 multi-media pavilion, Museum Wien, Karlsplatz Vienna A



 

Selected group shows

2012 PARKFAIR - ARTE NOAH, Vienna A
paraflows.7 - Reverse Engineering Festival für digitale Kunst und Kulturen, Vienna A
2009

MIFAN, VENUE_Room 208, NO.A3 Industrial Park-East, Shenzen, CN

MIFAN, organised by ASAP, curated by Karel Dudesek, AnniArt Gallery, 798 Dashanzi Art District, Beijing, CN

WORKS BY Lukas Birk, Karel Dudesek, Sylvia Eckermann, Gerald Nestler, Nikolaus Gansterer, Matthias Meinharter, Ulrike Johannsen, Jasmin Ladenhaufen, Ralo Mayer.

2007

Acting in Utopia, Linzer Landesgalerie, Linz A

WORKS BY Olaf Nicolai (D), Ernesto Neto (Brasilien), Christine und Irene Hohenbüchler (A), Sylvia Eckermann/ Peter Szely/Doron Goldfarb (A), Wolfgang Münch und Kiyoshi Furukawa (D/JAP), Vadim Fishkin (RUS/SLO), Katrin Sigurdardottir (ISL/USA)
ars electronica, Linz A

2006

media@terra, International Art + Technology Festival, Athens GR
3rd International Digital Art Festival, Changzhou CN
WORKING_WORLD.NET Living and working in the midst of globalization, Museum Arbeitswelt Steyr A

WORKS BY Sylvia Eckermann & Gerald Nestler (A),Valie Export (A), Ingo Günther (USA), Felix Malnig (A), Michael Pisk (A), REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT Martin Keil und Henrik Mayer (D), Oliver Ressler (A), Joseph Sappler (D), Ingo Vetter & Annette Weisser (D) in Kooperation mit Mitch Cope (USA)
ARTGAMES Analogien zwischen Kunst und Spiel, Ludwig Forum für internationale Kunst, Aachen D

WORKS BY Atelier Kompakt, Julien Alma/Laurent Hart, Norbert Bayer, Andrea Bender, Flavio Bonetti, Birgit Brinkmann, Stanislaw Drozdz, Elisabeth Ensenberger, Sylvia Eckermann/ Mathias Fuchs, Sylvie Fleury, Peter Fischli/David Weiss, Beate Geissler/Oliver Sann, Eva Grubinger, Invader, Christian Jankowski, Margarete Jahrmann/Max Moswitzer, Mariko Mori, Volker Morawe/Tilman Reiff, Peter Niemann, Miguel Angel Rios, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Angel Vergara Santagio, Rob Scholte, Roman Signer, Marion Strunk, //////////fur////art
SKYLAB 5, Kindermuseum ZOOM Wiener Museumsquartier, Vienna A

WORKS BY Julia Bruchner, Susanne Delleske, Sylvia Eckermann, Nikolaus Gansterer, Dominik Guggenberger, Tina Handl, Hons, Peter Kozek, Diana Levin, David Moises, Marius Schebella, Karl Seiringer, Michael Silbergasser, Peter Szely, Jasmin Trabichler

2005 ISEA  international symbosia for electronic art , Helsinki FI
2004 GAMEART Völklinger Hütte, Völklingen D
2003

GAMES computerspiele von KünstlerInnen, hardware medienkunstverein Dortmund D

WORKS BY Julien Alma /Laurent Hart, F, Cory Arcangel, USA, Mister Ministeck Norbert Bayer, D, Tom Betts, GB, Pash Buzari, D, Leon Cmielewski / Josephine Starrs, AUS, Arcangel Constantini, MEX, Vuk Cosic, Slowenien, Aurélien Froment, F, Mathias Fuchs / Sylvia Eckermann, A, Beate Geissler / Oliver Sann, D, Margarete Jahrmann / Max Moswitzer, A, Jodi, E, Joan Leandre, E Mongrel, GB, Tilman Reiff / Volker Morawe, D, Anne-Marie Schleiner / Brody Condon, USA , Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag, D, Space Invader, F, Thomson & Craighead, GB, Olaf Val, D, Yang Zhenzhong, CN, Lars Zumbansen, D

  cyber@rt, Bilbao E
  SELFEWARE-politics of identity, Graz2003 Kulturhauptstadt A
2000

THE MINDZONE Millenium Dome London GB, curated by Zaha Hadid

SYNWORLD; Public Netbase Vienna A, curated by Konrad Becker

Axel Stockburger (A), Basicray (USA), Dextro (A), Sylvia Eckermann, Mathias Fuchs(A), Glow (A), jodi.org (B, NL), Margarete Jahrmann (A) Kandyman (A), Max Moswitzer (A), Robert Adrian X | August Black | Markus Seidl (A), Synreal t0 (A), Vuk Cosic (SLO)

1998

ARCHIV   X, curated by Elke Krasny and Elisabeth Madlener; O.K Center of Contemporary Art Linz A

WORKS BY Laura Anderson Barbata (USA), Beusch/Cassani (F), Guillaume Bijl (B), Jörg Brombacher/Klaus Heid (D)
Alain Bublex (F), Clegg & Guttmann (USA; A), Nicolas Collins (D), Patrick Corillon (F), Sylvia Eckermann, Mathias Fuchs (A), Karl-Heinz Klopf (A), Eva-Maria Kósa (A), Christian Marclay (USA), Rosângela Rennó (Rio de Janeiro), Katharina Struber (A)

WORK & CULTURE, Landesmuseum Linz A

WORKS BY John Baldessari, Dara Birnbaum, Heiko Bressnik, Marcel Broodthaers, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Hanne Darboven, Sylvia Eckermann, Mathias Fuchs, Barbara Holub, Peter Hueme, Margarete Jahrmann, Herbert Lachmayer, Eleonora Louis, Inge Morath, MarikoMori, Maurizio Nannucci, Marion von Osten, Martin Osterider, Blinky Palermo, Public Netbase t0, Institut für neue Kulturtechnologien, PriskaRiedl, Betty Spackman, Timm Ulrichs, Anja Westerfrölke

1995 EAST selectors: Marian Goodman, Giuseppe Penone, Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts Norwich GB
1994

ISEA 1994 Helsinki FI, ...

ELSEWARE, Titanik Gallery, Turku F

1993

SOUND, Museum of Modern Arts Bolzano IT

SAFE. Mediagalleria, Turku FI