Syndicate: Unexpected Obstacles opening at ZKM Media Museum

[http.//www.zkm.de/hoberman/@zkm.de (by way of Walter van der Cruijsen)]

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for immediate release:
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UNEXPECTED OBSTACLES: WORK BY PERRY HOBERMAN 1982-98
OPENS AT ZKM MEDIA MUSEUM 29 MAY 1998
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>From May 30th to August 16th the ZKM Media Museum will present a
comprehensive retrospective of the works of the American media artist Perry
Hoberman.
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OPENING Friday 29 May 1998 beginning at 6 PM
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Friday 29 May 1998
6 PM Greeting: Dr. Gerd Schwandner
     Talk: Erkki Huhtamo, University of Lappland &
     Prof. Dr. Hans Peter Schwarz, Director ZKM Mediamuseum
9 PM REMOTE - Interactive Performance
    (IMPORTANT! Please bring your TV remote control with you!)
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Saturday 30 May 1998
2 PM Discussion:
     Erkki Huhtamo, Timothy Druckrey
     Jonathan Lethem, Sally Jane Norman
     Moderation:  Prof. Dr.Hans-Peter Schwarz
6 PM Reading - Jonathan Lethem
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Since the 1980s Hoberman has analyzed and commented on the influence of
technology on our perception and the determination of our everyday life
through the medium of sculpture, installations and interactive
environments. The artifacts of pop culture and the vast range of 20th
century technological equipment form an almost unlimited source for the
ironic style of his works.

The visitors to this retrospective are heading for unfamiliar experiences
with superficially familiar objects. Film sequences, advertising slogans,
kitchen appliances, and last but not least familiar computer monitors are
displaced from their usual context and are arranged in surprisingly novel
ways that are highly imaginative. Perry Hoberman uses these objects as a
starting point for developing totally new aesthetic systems of
interrelations.

In "Dead Space/Living Rooms", for example, film stills and fragments of
sound tracks from long forgotten movies spring to life again as huge 3D
projections. In the interactive installation "Faraday's Garden" the whole
arsenal of electrical household equipment comprising mixers, shavers and
fans turns into a kind of mechanical ballet. Starting up this kinetic
sculpture follows a hidden pattern and takes the viewers in an almost
ghostlike choreography through the room.

Perry Hoberman is an absolute expert in handling the full potential of the
new media in order to create representative new spaces for observation. In
his works the haptic character of objects is placed in juxtaposition with
the volatility of images. He contrasts the cold presentation of a virtual
reality with imaginative dreams. In this way he expresses his comment on
the euphoria of many progressive utopias in both a nostalgic and satiric
way.
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EXHIBITION EVENTS - all events take place at 11 AM Sunday
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14 June/12 July:  Unexpected Obstacles - The Apparatus of
                  Consumer Society: Lecture by Gabriele Blome
21 June/19 July   Film Recycling - Film as an Artists'
                  Material:
                  Lecture by Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter
                  Schwarz
28 June/2 August  Home of the Brave - Directed by Laurie
                  Anderson - Film Screening
5 July/26 July	  Technology - Art - Pop:
                  Lecture by Dr. Gerhard Blechinger
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CLOSING EVENTS - Saturday 15 August 1998
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17 PM	Test Patterns:
        Video Works from New York presented by Perry Hoberman
20 PM	Artist's Conversation in the Night Cafe:
	Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter Schwarz
        in conversation with Perry Hoberman
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ONLINE PROJECT opening 29 May 1998
Cathartic User Interface Worldwide
go to: http://www.zkm.de/hoberman/
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ZKM / Media Museum        Wednesday-Saturday 12 AM - 8 PM
Lorenzstr. 19             Sunday 10 AM - 6 PM
76135 Karlsruhe, Germany  Monday/Tuesday closed
Tel. 0721-8100 1200       admission 10 / 5 DM
Fax. 0721-8100 1139       http://www.zkm.de/
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Unexpected Obstacles is produced by
ZKM Media Museum, Karlsruhe, Germany and
Galleria Otso, Espoo, Finland
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