22.09. - 22.10.
Opening at 18 o'clock at Baustelle Schaustelle Essen
On Thursday, September 9th,
I had Taco Thursday at my house because none of my pals were free on Tuesday. A key reason for us meeting was to record my friends discussing my upcoming exhibition in Essen and generally about ideas and where ideas come from. My end goal was to transcribe the conversation and put the best parts, right here, instead of this text.
On Sunday, September 11th,
I finally sat down to transcribe the 30 minutes long recording. I listened to the first minute and realized that there was no way I was going to be able to do it. As a non-native German speaker it was cognitively impossible for me. I couldn’t get past the first minute without repeating the audio a dozen or so times.
So I had a brilliant idea — I was going to play the audio to my computer so that the computer can transcribe the text for me. I started the dictation program — it was working! — and left the room for half an hour. When I came back later to check the final transcription— it was all gibberish. Here are a few excerpts:
Example 1:
DE: Weil zum Beispiel dann dann ist ja klar dass das schon seinen Grund da war das aber außen der kommt daher das ich natürlich gewisse Diskurse dann auch wieder verändern auch so irgendwo Sachen die ich jetzt in der Vergangenheit in Houston hochgradig Creme abhängig und auch nicht so an sing in Greetsiel in kreativ sind in My god likes Minuten pure pure bei dir Sex weil so letztendlich warum warum warum Mann bisschen das Gefühl zu haben so sorry aber was denn passiert hier gerade eigentlich dass man da irgendwie auch so ne Form von power auch haben will das ist ja auch was positives also ne Form von irgendwie keine Ahnung
EN: Because for example then it’s clear that there was a reason for that but outside that comes from the fact that I naturally change certain discourses then again also so somewhere things that I now in the past in Houston highly cream dependent and also not so sing in Greetsiel in creative are in My god likes minutes pure pure with you sex because so ultimately why why why why man a bit the feeling to have so sorry but what is happening here actually that one somehow also wants to have such a form of power that is also something positive so a form of somehow no idea
Example 2:
DE: Es geht eigentlich um genau diese Gespräche über diese Sachen zu führen und rauszuholen was aus dem Betrachter dabei raus also was ist in der Rezeption das was im Rad angesehen wird diese alte alte Frage immer noch was ist die Intention des großen meist das ist der Sohn aus der Romantik dieser ganze Künstlergenie eigentlich noch irgendwie überwinden müssen vielleicht auch schnell rein rutschen aber das ist ja genau das zu sagen es gibt kein January January Etymologie das gibt es einfach nicht und es gibt niemanden der von nichts wissen oder nicht fähig und warum fällt Kultur in China
EN: It is actually about exactly these conversations about these things to lead and rauszuholen what out of the viewer thereby raus so what is in the reception of what is viewed in the wheel this old old question still what is the intention of the great mostly that is the son from the Romanticism this whole artist genius actually still somehow have to overcome perhaps also quickly slip in but that is exactly to say there is no January January etymology that simply does not exist and there is no one of nothing know or not capable and why falls culture in China
A cogent and thoughtful conversation about ideas and my work had become scrambled robo-German. An elegant solution for a text was gone. This is a serious problem, I thought, as my upper lip and armpits began sweating. Panic was setting in. I went outside for some fresh air and thought about what I was going to do.
What had brought me to this point? At exactly 22:28 on Thursday, September 11th, it struck me — in a roundabout way I had in a sense found exactly what I needed for this text space: The robo-German is like the thoughts inside my head where constant external inputs and stimuli are scrambled and reassembled into new thoughts and ideas. Squeezed out into the world these ideas have my name on them, but they are really born from every person and every thing that I have ever interacted with. Nothing springs forth from the head of Zeus!