jens brand raumarbeit II (planetenmaschine nach potocnik) Sound installation
11 July – 22 September 2013
Small water reservoir

In some of his newer works, Jens Brand has focused on the idea of »world machines«. What distinguishes these machines from conventional ones, such as watches for instance, is their purely metaphorical character. Conventional machines have a specific function, they provide answers to concrete questions. »World machines«, on the other hand, are artistic concepts that solely serve the purpose of artistically depicting and questioning aspects of reality. They are both tools and metaphors that help us attempt to fit the things around us into a logic that seems comprehensible and interpretable. In doing so, they barely differ from conventional machines. Except that the »answers« provided by Brand’s machines are spaces for open reflexion.
His »Raumarbeit II — Planetenmaschine nach Potočnik« (space/site work II — planet machine based on Potočnik), which was conceived for the small water reservoir, is a kind of »machine’s machine« (Brand). Jens Brand takes the reservoir’s circular spatial architecture as an opportunity to install a planet model emulating 18th century mechanics. It consists of two independent modules, each driven by one motor and equipped with a loudspeaker and microphone, plus a 200 watt light bulb at the centre as well as a large spy mirror. All of these elements rotate around the centre of the reservoir at four different speeds.
The bulb is the only light source at the centre of the space. A tin with a slit rotates around it, moving the light circularly through the space. Underneath it, rotating somewhat slower, there is a hemisphere-shaped loudspeaker. Using a long steel frame construction, the same motor also propels the spy mirror, travelling in reverse direction along outer edge of the stage-like podium in the centre. The mirror’s size (240 × 270 cm) corresponds precisely to the five wall openings leading to this central area of the small water reservoir, so that it closes them briefly as it rotates. Depending on how the light falls and where the viewer stands, the mirror’s surface changes, appearing sometimes transparent, sometimes reflective and sometimes opaque.
At the same time, far from the central mechanism — in the exterior vaulted passageway — a spherical loudspeaker suspended on a motor carriage orbits the space on a rail at a very slow speed. This satellite requires exactly one hour to complete a rotation.
Nothing can be heard in »Raumarbeit II« other than the machines themselves. Condenser microphones — installed directly on the objects — record the noises of the mechanics and the motors and transmit them in real time to the respective loudspeakers. The circular movement is both a symbol and a programme. Apparently, the machine is in a permanent state of self-reflexion. The role of the observer changes constantly: sometimes he or she is part of this machinery — for example, when reflected in the glass travelling by — sometimes he or she is simply a silent observer of continuously circling machines creaking under the strain.
Approximately every five minutes, however, feedback sounds coming from the outer ring fill the space. They occur whenever the spherical loudspeaker has to pass through narrow vaults. Especially while driving in and out of the walled »backstage area«, they almost seem to sing.

Construction and set-up: Paper Blattmacher
Technical assistance: Michael Roggon, Hans Bram, Thomas Wochnik
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