PROGRAM
Tirs 23. nov
Ons 24. nov
Tors 25. nov
Fre 26. nov
Lør 27. nov
Søn 28. nov
Tirs 30. nov
Ons 1. des
Fre 3. des
Lør 4. des
Søn 5. des
HEKTOR
(ULI FRANKE AND JÜRG LEHNI) :
Collecting tags in Bergen.
Herman Friele.
DETOX: So is Hektor an art project?
FRANKE / LEHNI: It is a project that works in different contexts, but it was'nt built directly for the art context. It was built with some clear ideas behind it and these turned out to work nicely in the art context.
F: and we never knew before, how worthy it is to perform.
L: It is not a dance thing, but it is nice to see it doing it's work. It has some qualities when it does it's work.
F/L: when we saw it the first time, it was like WOW! We couldn't believe it worked, it was so crazy.
F: how it moved, it was a magic moment.
L: The machine is quite ambigious. You don't know where to put it, in what context. What it is, what it is not. There are so many different motivattions. It was not the same thing for both of us, and it is not the same for anyone who looks at it. It was good to give it a name, because it really has some kind of personality.
And found out, by watching other people, what it could be and not, what it can be used for and not.
F: Lots of peoople thinks about commercial usage. Like big ads on walls. We get many requests. Too many.
L: We thought about lending out units. But very controlled, like people could propose projects for HEKTOR.
D: It works more like a medium, doesn't it?
L. Yes it is a medium. It is an output device. We call it Graffiti Output Device.
F: But it is not really a robot. I am not into this robot stuff. Or clever robots. But HEKTOR is just a stupid machine, a slave to us.
D: How did you choose from the 180 tags we collected for you in Bergen?
L: There were several criterias. One was style. Another was silliness, stupid ones.
F: we are not in the scene, but we are not to far from it, since we live in a city. There are so much graffiti around, you learn to see if people have more skills or less.
L: Another criteria was originality. And fresh. And what we liked.
D: We had a discussion about the portrait?
L: Today, yes.
F: The best solution, in my opinion, would be to have two seperate walls. One for the tags and one for the portrait. So you can really tell these are seperate pieces.
D: but this placement, is more like levelling.
L: There are some things I like about it, but it is not me doing politic work. HEKTOR is a poetic machine.
F: And how we are interpreted in this city, in the local politics etcetera.
L: But we have come to Bergen and takes two levels of observations.
F: I am not so concerned about this part, I am more like the engineer, Lehni is the "art director". I realize sometimes, that I can relate to this, that it's enough for me. I met a lot of people in the art context, that are very arrogant and making their place, to get their position and are very aggresive. There is not so much place for all people doing stuff like this. It is very "Anstrengt". It is not important to me in the art world. I will not be a person making my living from art.
L: But what we share in the motivation is breaking out of normal conventions.
F: I use to build things.
L: He builds everything himself.
F: It is actually a problem, it takes so long time. When you try to build everything, you get very old before you can use it. Another problem is that I always say yes. It gets me into a lot of problems...
D: How did you meet?
L: We studied together. Before I went towards design, I went through a science study. I left after a year and went to design.
F: but we kept contact and when Lehni was ready for his diploma project, he mailed me. As I was responding, he found out that another very similar project existed.
L.: I was really fed up with the standard tools. Everyone very doing this monocultural slick dseign. For web, you use Flash, for print Illustrator. The tools and probabilies in Photoshop define your work. I wanted to break out of this, just in a silly way. It was a bit like a cage. And if you knaow have to build your own tools, in hardware and software, you can do whatever you want.
F: And not rely on existing ones.
L: And I wanted to, in a very naive and silly way, do a a drawing device. I wanted to do a remote controlled car, so it drives them. But then I found out about the project Graffiti Writer, which is actually just that. Even though it only does text, it was too close to my own idea.
F: And he was very sad. He even thought about dropping the whole thing.
L.And it was really late, I found this out just one day before my project presentation.
F: And I said, don't care about it, I was in Sardinia at the time, and I said, come here and do some holidays and take a rest.
L: And he really took care of me.
F: And I proposed, get off the floor, do it vertically.
Then we brainstorrmed on how.
L: And the project just evolved in our conversation. It was one of those magic moments.
We first wanted to have four motors, to be more precise. But we tried and it was very diffecult to get it to work, so we had to use only two. Then it was all about software, to make the praycan move in circles and no harsh movements, so it doesn't shiver.
F: It is also much easier to mount and calliberate.
L: But four motors could also be beautiful. The X for example, would be very nice. And it could move much faster.
D: Any connection to the graffiti scene?
L: No. It is more like a solution. And I like the raw quality. And it is nice to put colour directly on a surface.
D: you never did signing or tagging yourself?
F: No, it's just a can. It's practical.
L: We thought about other things. Like brushes.
D: Markers?
L: Yes, that is another project. Next one...
F: But spray is very practical.
L: But spray is very hot and a lot of people are breaking out of the clean design. HEKTOR is a child of it times. And graffiti has had a wave in the designer world.
D: So if this is a trend, when will it stop??
F: That's why I always want to move on.
L: But there is still more to explore, I think.
