multimedia installation
mid-air collisions
The installation is about the interaction between the natural environment and the infrastructure of renewable energy sources.
In the Mojave Desert, over 170,000 motorized mirrors reflect sunlight onto three central solar towers. Not far from the Californian border with Nevada, the Ivanpah solar power plant, built in 2014 and invested in by the internet company that was to change its name to Alphabet a year later, generates around 700 GWh of electricity from concentrated sunlight every year.
Kathrin Stumreich focuses her attention on a seemingly neglected aspect of renewable energies: The UV component of the glaring light in the zone around the solar tower, which can reach temperatures of up to 1000 degrees, attracts insects, which in turn attract birds. The animals burn up in the heat.
The artist collected photographic and video material on site, in which she captured the white clouds of smoke from the burning animals, the thermals and the blue of the sky. She documents these facts in video and photography, which, however, elude classification due to the way the images are presented and, as a result, appear artificially generated or even extraterrestrial.
In further works, Stumreich transforms her research once again: “Hommage to an insect’s eye” fuses the visual apparatus of insects and birds with flame sensors and high-end wafer technology, thus incorporating the thematic complexes of biomimesis, technology transfer and sensory perception into the works.
The “Parabol” sculpture imitates solar panels in the way it functions. A laser beam is sent through the focal line, which normally contains a salty liquid, onto which birdsong has been modulated. This sound is then demodulated and made audible.
Reflecting the energy-hungry innovation pressure of the tech industry (last year alone, Alphabet said it spent 30% of its energy requirements on machine learning), Stumreich’s MID-AIR COLLISIONS confront the ambivalent relationship between nature, sustainable energy production and technological progress. (Text: Elko Braas, Kasseler docfilmfestival).
(photos©Tina Kult), Solo Exhibition at discotec.art