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Maya and Friends
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Maya Brush
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Maya Birth
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Maya DNA
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Maya Sitzende
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Dream of Beauty 5.1
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Dream of Beauty 5.0
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Dream of Beauty 4.0
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Dream of Beauty 3.1
Monitor Installation
This monitor installation presents in black and white the original form of the further developed „virtual beauty“, which, life-sized, paces the catwalk. The graceful movements are underlined by the high-contrast image and uncover at the same time an intermediate step in the evolution of the archetype: the closed rendering, that defines form and movement and which is waiting to be coloured in, in order to correspond more fully to our ideal of beauty. In this way, the composition is suspended between binary code and feigned reality – she is the naked archetype which shows Blade Runner its true identity.
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Catwalk
Dream of Beauty 3.0
In the media art of the Nineties, the body appears as a project in which overlapping systems cooperate, encountering us in the guise of self-generated idealities, resolved into pixels, pieces of information and fragmented self-portraits. Kirsten Geisler works with virtual creations. She exploits the possibilities of digital technology to create artistic beauty. She develops women's heads, virtual beauties which she designs on the computer following the results of research into the human perception of beauty. Although Geisler's "Beauties" appear to fulfil every criteria of the ideal of female beauty, the total lack of expression on their elegantly proportioned faces is profoundly irritating. Geisler's comparison shows that the stereotyped portrayal of the woman has already reached such a degree of artificiality today that the boundaries between the real world and the virtual world are becoming increasingly insignificant. The perfected clone confronted and compared with our ideal image is nevertheless unpredictable: the virtual "Beauties" have very little to say, showing neither fear nor feelings and their readiness to communicate - laughing, winking, speaking - is evidently beyond our control. While we look to progress and technology for the future, the clone throws us back to our own humanity: we miss emotions, warmth, all things physical. The current version 3.0 / 3.1, catwalk of a "Whole Body - Beauty", confronts the observer with an even more difficult assessment because of the perfection of body and movement. Kirsten Geisler, together with a cosmetic surgeon, has done an amazing job here. The test tube product is swinging its hips in a masterly fashion towards the observer, who oscillates between seemingly fashionable fascination for the gracious seduction and a disapproving attitude to so much cliché.
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The Kiss
Dream of Beauty 2.4
Interactive 3D computer animation, Kirsten Geisler, 1998 "The Kiss" is a 3D computer animation, displaying a virtual "Beauty", who shows the discrepancy between natural and artificial beauty. The standardised emotionality of advertisement aesthetics is played off against itself. The artificially constructed, ideal female represented by the "Beauty" is not only exposed as a mere façade, but also as a wall, which obstructs intimate communication. Pressing the button enables the spectator to get in touch with the woman. The "Beauty" has her own life and reacts in several ways, e.g. she gives a kiss or refuses to do so. The reaction is not fixed beforehand, the computer chooses a sequence from the harddrive at random.
Watching Me - Watching You
DREAM OF BEAUTY 2.3
Interactive 3D computer animation, Kirsten Geisler, 1998The traditional pictorial presentation of human beings almost always involves the question about the reality of the depiction. Due to the employment of technical media and their possibilities, this debate has gained a new dimension.
This is the point at which Kirsten Geisler’s ‘Watching Me - Watching You’ comes in. Her interactive computer animations blur the border between the real and virtual level and suggest a new reality, from two-dimensional presentation to three-dimensional presence. The traditional portrait is thus transformed into an active opposite. Three monitors, fixed at a comfortable height for visitors, each show the portrait of a woman. They are ‘beauties’, not existing in reality, but computer generated according to the ideal of beauty as stated by behavioural science. So they are the result of measurable beauty. By pressing a button a visitor can individually make contact. If and how the women react is random, which emphasises the ‘real’ character of the virtual flirt, seemingly based on liking.
Human gestures, such as a wink or a laugh, reward the visitor. The laugh, however, sounds artificial and unnatural, which destroys the illusion for good. Kirsten Geisler’s women envoke the satisfaction of human needs for contact, recognition and communication without keeping their promise. The lustful game with interhuman emotions seems (still) to be reserved to reality.
Alexandra Kolossa, Ludwig Forum for International Arts, Aachen (GER)
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Touch Me
DREAM OF BEAUTY 2.2
The dream of ideal beauty has not been fulfilled. Nobody is in the position to actually state what this "ideal" might be. However, Kirsten Geisler shows the manner in which it manifests itself today in her computer animated, interactive projections. At the precise moment when the distinction between a virtual, projected ideal image and the physical and psychological self-perception increasingly descends into the subconscious, Kirsten Geisler brings into play her works based upon an artificially generated beauty, taking up the struggle of the individual to correspond in appearance and nature to a heteronomous and ideal model. Today the identification of the individual with his or her numerous virtual representatives has reached the point where physical presence is not required for interaction and psychological presence is in danger of becoming totally obsolete. The head of "beauty" is oversized and conveys the notion of a proportional rather than a fashionable model, since -shaven to the bare skin- it propagates an aseptic, sterile ideal that easily corresponds with the ideal of a perfect, computer-generated »New World«. In regard to its larger-than life proportions and its absolute symmetry, Kirsten Geisler draws upon the eternal image of the infallible God, whose model man is to emulate by striving for the symbiosis between God and himself the divine example and the commandment to fulfill this example lies at the basis of this eternal striving to achieve an ideal state whose perfection is the impetus and not the aim of the endeavor. In the course of the 20th century this quest has shifted more and more to a secular level and today fulfills itself, among other things, in the cult of beauty and the obsession with slimness. The supposed alienation of inner values, however, should not be understood much as a loss, but should rather be seen as resulting from the transformation of the communicative systems within the media. The increasing dominance of visual and symbolic signs in contrast to written linguistic signs, causally linked to the developments of new image media and the computer, enables Kirsten Geisler to investigate the discrepancy between "'natural" and "artificial" worlds, to question how far they are at all distinguishable. Apart from gestural and mimical reactions, such as the smile, the kiss, the opening and closing of the eyes, the turning of the head, "beauty" now also increasingly proceeds with phonetic articulations. Its counterpart has the possibility of posing questions or making a linguistic statement upon which "beauty" reacts. At the moment the limits of the system are reached, the inadequacies and the imperfections of the being on the screen become apparent. This makes "beauty" appear very human despite its radiant brilliance, but does not, however, reduce its effect; rather it multiplies it many times over. For the meaning of these works does not lie in the acknowledgement of the ideal state of this virtual being, but rather in experiencing the proximity and identity of the animated image and the ideal concept, the illusory difference and distance to this system, while at the same time participating in it in a subconscious yet constitutive manner.
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Counting
DREAM OF BEAUTY 2.1
Interactive 3D computer animation, Kirsten Geisler, 1999A young woman watches the visitors and begins to count.
It becomes quickly apparent that it is not an image of a living person, but that she is virtual; instead of flesh and blood there are bites and bytes. The counting figure is a product of mathematics herself. She uses her origin as the basis for communication with her environment and in doing so, she reduces the human spectator to an anonymous number. On the one hand the visitor looses his name and in turn identity, on the other hand he becomes part of the numerical masses. We are forced to ask the question: are names and identity numbers the same or simply an indication for an individual? The accumulation of letters are replaced by a series of numbers.
In "Counting" the conflict between individual minds and the community is sometimes defused by the beauty while she calls out at random: "1234 connect to 5678". Fate connects people, partner selection by computer.
In many cultures numbers are the origin of all things and creatures; they are the harmony that underlies the world’s structure. Numbers specify quantities, however, they also express a symbolic quality. Not only appropriate for a seemingly objective description of time measurement in minutes, hours, days, or for the determination of spatial distances in metres or miles, but also as the expression of emotional values. 300 people killed in a plane crash evokes more emotions as three victims in everyday traffic. What happens close by has more impact than what happens somewhere far away. The past fades, something long sustained becomes normal. In both cases a negative correlation with regard to emotional values arises.
The individual emotional factor ci is the measure for emotional intensity, which is evoked in the individual by an event. "Counting’ is a piece of work about our relation to numbers, mathematics, the universe and therefore to ourselves.
With special thanks to RMH, agency for new media, Cologne
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DREAM OF BEAUTY 2.0
Interactive 3D computer animation, Kirsten Geisler, 1999
The dream of ideal beauty has not been fulfilled. Nobody is in the position to actually state what this "ideal" might be. However, Kirsten Geisler shows the manner in which it manifests itself today in her computer animated, interactive projections. At the precise moment when the distinction between a virtual, projected ideal image and the physical and psychological self-perception increasingly descends into the subconscious, Kirsten Geisler brings into play her works based upon an artificially generated beauty, taking up the struggle of the individual to correspond in appearance and nature to a heteronomous and ideal model.
Today the identification of the individual with his or her numerous virtual representatives has reached the point where physical presence is not required for interaction and psychological presence is in danger of becoming totally obsolete. The head of "beauty" is oversized and conveys the notion of a proportional rather than a fashionable model, since -shaven to the bare skin- it propagates an aseptic, sterile ideal that easily corresponds with the ideal of a perfect, computer-generated »New World«. In regard to its larger-than life proportions and its absolute symmetry, Kirsten Geisler draws upon the eternal image of the infallible God, whose model man is to emulate by striving for the symbiosis between God and himself the divine example and the commandment to fulfill this example lies at the basis of this eternal striving to achieve an ideal state whose perfection is the impetus and not the aim of the endeavor.
In the course of the 20th century this quest has shifted more and more to a secular level and today fulfills itself, among other things, in the cult of beauty and the obsession with slimness. The supposed alienation of inner values, however, should not be understood much as a loss, but should rather be seen as resulting from the transformation of the communicative systems within the media.
The increasing dominance of visual and symbolic signs in contrast to written linguistic signs, causally linked to the developments of new image media and the computer, enables Kirsten Geisler to investigate the discrepancy between "'natural" and "artificial" worlds, to question how far they are at all distinguishable. Apart from gestural and mimical reactions, such as the smile, the kiss, the opening and closing of the eyes, the turning of the head, "beauty" now also increasingly proceeds with phonetic articulations. Its counterpart has the possibility of posing questions or making a linguistic statement upon which "beauty" reacts.
At the moment the limits of the system are reached, the inadequacies and the imperfections of the being on the screen become apparent. This makes "beauty" appear very human despite its radiant brilliance, but does not, however, reduce its effect; rather it multiplies it many times over. For the meaning of these works does not lie in the acknowledgement of the ideal state of this virtual being, but rather in experiencing the proximity and identity of the animated image and the ideal concept, the illusory difference and distance to this system, while at the same time participating in it in a subconscious yet constitutive manner.
Markus Mascher, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
The dream of ideal beauty has not been fulfilled. Nobody is in the position to actually state what this "ideal" might be. However, Kirsten Geisler shows the manner in which it manifests itself today in her computer animated, interactive projections. At the precise moment when the distinction between a virtual, projected ideal image and the physical and psychological self-perception increasingly descends into the subconscious, Kirsten Geisler brings into play her works based upon an artificially generated beauty, taking up the struggle of the individual to correspond in appearance and nature to a heteronomous and ideal model.
Today the identification of the individual with his or her numerous virtual representatives has reached the point where physical presence is not required for interaction and psychological presence is in danger of becoming totally obsolete. The head of "beauty" is oversized and conveys the notion of a proportional rather than a fashionable model, since -shaven to the bare skin- it propagates an aseptic, sterile ideal that easily corresponds with the ideal of a perfect, computer-generated »New World«. In regard to its larger-than life proportions and its absolute symmetry, Kirsten Geisler draws upon the eternal image of the infallible God, whose model man is to emulate by striving for the symbiosis between God and himself the divine example and the commandment to fulfill this example lies at the basis of this eternal striving to achieve an ideal state whose perfection is the impetus and not the aim of the endeavor.
In the course of the 20th century this quest has shifted more and more to a secular level and today fulfills itself, among other things, in the cult of beauty and the obsession with slimness. The supposed alienation of inner values, however, should not be understood much as a loss, but should rather be seen as resulting from the transformation of the communicative systems within the media.
The increasing dominance of visual and symbolic signs in contrast to written linguistic signs, causally linked to the developments of new image media and the computer, enables Kirsten Geisler to investigate the discrepancy between "'natural" and "artificial" worlds, to question how far they are at all distinguishable. Apart from gestural and mimical reactions, such as the smile, the kiss, the opening and closing of the eyes, the turning of the head, "beauty" now also increasingly proceeds with phonetic articulations. Its counterpart has the possibility of posing questions or making a linguistic statement upon which "beauty" reacts.
At the moment the limits of the system are reached, the inadequacies and the imperfections of the being on the screen become apparent. This makes "beauty" appear very human despite its radiant brilliance, but does not, however, reduce its effect; rather it multiplies it many times over. For the meaning of these works does not lie in the acknowledgement of the ideal state of this virtual being, but rather in experiencing the proximity and identity of the animated image and the ideal concept, the illusory difference and distance to this system, while at the same time participating in it in a subconscious yet constitutive manner.
Markus Mascher, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
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DREAM OF BEAUTY 1.2
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The Beauties
The Beauty
Interactive 3D computer animation, Kirsten Geisler, 1997The concept of "beautiful" is currently dictated by the media. Television, newspapers and magazines set the tone. Every night they flash hundreds of beauties over the screen. If that is not enough, you can gaze at them in black-and-white or glossy magazines. Erotic charisma is enforced, seduction is the trend. In this process particularly the eyes and mouth play a key role.
On five LCD-monitors "The Beauty" displays the different elements of eyes, mouth and complete face, which are generated by the computer. The spectator is not only able to interact with separate elements, but also to get in touch with the full face. This contact is, however, restricted to the egocentric utterance of the belle: "I’m a Beauty, I’m a Virtual". Like modern women the virtual female also shows her profile; her character is a combination of prudish beauty and self-confidence.
The five elements (mouth, right eye, left eye, profile, full face) can be displayed separately or as a series.
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DREAM OF BEAUTY 1.0
Interactive 3D Computer animation, Kirsten Geisler, 1997
The enchanting power of her steady gaze, fixed upon us, pulls us under her spell. Larger than life - simultanously real and unreal - she, Kirsten Geisler's "Beauty", watches us. She is the epitome of standardized beauty. However, although she seems to satisfy all of the conventions of an ideal feminine beauty, the absolute void of expression on her elegantly proportioned face creates a lingering vexation. Although one would not expect her to have any autonomy, slowly she begins to speak:: " I'm a beauty - I'm a virtual."
A microphone, installed in front of the large format video portrait, gives visitors the opportunity to break the spell and to get into a conversation with the Beauty. She responds to questions and comments from visitors by nodding graciously, shaking her head or by answering, "I don't like it". The most surprising moments are when the Beauty suddenly winks knowingly or when she, for a brief moment, smiles.
At this point, at the latest, the discrepancy between natural and artificial beauty becomes clear. In the "Dream of Beauty", Kirsten Geisler skilfully plays the conventional commercial aesthetic off against itself. The construct of ideal feminine beauty, which Geisler's Beauty represents, is not only exposed as sheer facade but also forms a wall that impedes profound communication.
Geisler demonstrates that - regardless of whether we are dealing with traditional or digital media- the stereotypical portrayal of women has reached such a degree of artificiality that the boundaries between the real and the virtual world could lead to a situation in which fantasy and the world of imagination would once again take on greater meaning in our rationally ordered everyday lives.
The creative leeway is vast here, the remaining area displays human organs like a spare parts storage. The organs appear on small video screens in the installation space. The eyes, the nose, the mouth, and various perspectives of the face, that appear on the screens, point toward the future possibility of continually forming the face anew. This new freedom in the construction of changing identities has, admittedly, not only positive but also negative implications and in the face of an ever-advancing gene technology, the full extent of the negative implications are not yet foreseeable.
In her most recent work Kirsten Geisler makes it unmistakably clear that, contrary to every overestimation and mystification of the technical possibilities, the current state of technology is still sketchy. Her virtual beauty is, at its current stage of development, neither a perfect digital clone nor an equal human conversation partner. She is rather a naive, childish one, who is capable of learning nevertheless. In the future phases of her development, which are planned for the next year, she will continue to learn and expand her communicative abilities. Whether or not she will become an emotional and expressive "Beauty" depends most of all upon our willingness to acknowledge her social and communicative competence.
Dr. Soeke Dinkla, Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum Duisburg (GER)
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Who Are You
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ROSE-PETAL
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ROSE-PETALS
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Virtuarium: The Fly
Interactive 3D Computer animation, Kirsten Geisler, 2000
Nietzsche had already stated that "God is dead", and for Baudrillard reality was dead as well. Today, mankind basks in the omnipotence of biological, technical, and scientific knowledge that makes it the absolute ruler or even creator. Thanks to plastic surgery, cosmetics, and all sorts of medical devices and tinctures, one was hitherto able to wrest from nature new creative liberties at least in terms of optical appearance. Yet what was fundamentally not intended by nature, can now be achieved artificially thanks to the technology of the bio-engineers. In her works "Who are you", "Dream of Beauty" and "Touch me" Kirsten Geisler subjects the artificial beings from the "hybrid torture chamber" of such human arrogance to negotiation with the observer in order to point out the real dangers of the game with virtual artificiality.
As man shared his living space with the fly all along, the fly also joined the "virtual Homo Sapiens" in his "virtual sphere" and shares the advantages of the virtual living space. The monumental insect - this digital artefact that cleans itself, licks its legs and takes off with a buzzing sound - acts like the animals watched in the wild, by reacting and varying its behaviour with a certain degree of freedom. The asexual reproduction of the fly results in identical clones without individual characteristics. It seems impossible to tell apart its behaviour from that of the projection.
Should it become possible one day to implant life in general and that of the human race in particular into digital prototypes, in a way that they appear to us as indistinguishably conscious, maybe even soulful, then we would know the answer to the existential question: What is nature, what is man?
Barbara Könches, ZKM Karlsruhe (GER)
Nietzsche had already stated that "God is dead", and for Baudrillard reality was dead as well. Today, mankind basks in the omnipotence of biological, technical, and scientific knowledge that makes it the absolute ruler or even creator. Thanks to plastic surgery, cosmetics, and all sorts of medical devices and tinctures, one was hitherto able to wrest from nature new creative liberties at least in terms of optical appearance. Yet what was fundamentally not intended by nature, can now be achieved artificially thanks to the technology of the bio-engineers. In her works "Who are you", "Dream of Beauty" and "Touch me" Kirsten Geisler subjects the artificial beings from the "hybrid torture chamber" of such human arrogance to negotiation with the observer in order to point out the real dangers of the game with virtual artificiality.
As man shared his living space with the fly all along, the fly also joined the "virtual Homo Sapiens" in his "virtual sphere" and shares the advantages of the virtual living space. The monumental insect - this digital artefact that cleans itself, licks its legs and takes off with a buzzing sound - acts like the animals watched in the wild, by reacting and varying its behaviour with a certain degree of freedom. The asexual reproduction of the fly results in identical clones without individual characteristics. It seems impossible to tell apart its behaviour from that of the projection.
Should it become possible one day to implant life in general and that of the human race in particular into digital prototypes, in a way that they appear to us as indistinguishably conscious, maybe even soulful, then we would know the answer to the existential question: What is nature, what is man?
Barbara Könches, ZKM Karlsruhe (GER)
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Table Of Memories
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As Blue Gets Energy
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Steps
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Change
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