°ABOUT

°ABOUT

“…a merciless revealer using the means of Art.”

Berliner Zeitung, Germany
Michael Saup

Michael Saup is a German artist, instrumentalist, filmmaker and coder. He studied music, computer science and visual communication. He has acted as professor at HfG/ZKM University of Arts and Design in Germany and as the founding director of the Oasis Archive of the European Union. Furthermore, he is the co-founder of the Open Home Project, a humanitarian initiative to help people being affected by the Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan. Michael Saup’s work focuses on the underlying forces of nature and society; an ongoing research into what he calls “INFOSSIL- The Archaeology of Future”. Among his works are sound driven computer animations, interactive installations and concerts, interactive site-specific light installations and immersive networks. In the early 2000s his Weapons of Mass Education workshops were given in India, Afghanistan, Morocco and Europe. He shows in major museums, festivals and theaters worldwide, and has produced collaborative works with diverse, contemporary artists. He currently lives and works in Berlin.

SAPERE AUDE

During the 1990s Michael Saup developed a reputation as an innovative protagonist of digital art. His work, often in cooperation with other artists, has been widely shown in exhibitions, festivals and on stages around the world. He currently lives and works in Berlin.

Vor Sonnen-Aufgang, 2017 mit Laibach

In 1980, while enrolled at the Dominican University, San Rafael, California, Michael Saup studied music and computer science and started to combine both fields with an algorithmic approach. In 1987, he created “Flicker”, his first computer-generated light installation, which immersed a gallery space with permutations of pulsing light. From 1989 onwards, Saup began to experiment with real time transformations of sound and image, helping pioneer the development of software as an artform.

2000 – Michael Saup, Steina Vasulka and Louis Philippe Demers

Michael Saup’s early work introduced direct control of digital film through music and sound-driven interactive computer animations. With these innovative strategies he created installations like “Pulse8” (1992), concerts like “Hyena Days” (1992) and choreography generators like “Binary Ballistic Ballet” (1995).

Light as Skin, 1997, Frankfurt Airport

In 1992 he founded the group ”supreme particles”, helping launch the field of audiovisual processing and interactive environments. This group specialised in the creation of experimental software in connection with art, architecture and music. A work of this group was “Light as Skin” (1997), a connecting passenger transit tunnel bathed in light at Frankfurt International Airport being one of the first large scale and long term interactive works of media art in public space.

MS
R111, Tokyo 2001

Their installation “R111” (1999-2001) exhibited the concept of virtual matter and its ramifications in the real world. While new media actual tendencies were virtualizing reality, R111 took the inverse approach of materializing virtuality: choreographing particles of matter as though they were pixels.

The turn of the century saw Michael Saup begin to focus on political and social issues, such as access to communications media, consumption and transformation of fossil and “infossil” resources, nuclear history and financial theory. As part of his ‘Weapons of Mass Education’ project, he initiated workshops with young filmmakers in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Morocco and Afghanistan.

Research and Teaching

Michael Saup has held appointments at several universities, including the Academy of Fine Arts Munich and the Zürich University of the Arts. From 1991 to 1994 he was artistic and scientific assistant at the Institute for New Media in Frankfurt. In 1999 he was appointed as founding professor for Digital Art at ZKM / HfG Academy of Art and Design in Karlsruhe, where he remained in residence through 2005.

Falling Forest – Root Log, Montréal, 2008
shift, Gasometer Oberhausen, 1995
Kabul 2004, by Lida Abdul

Your art is deeply anchored in this desire to overcome space and time. The fossil is the remains of evolution that transcend death. Coal, which is thousands of years old, is the source of energy for today’s culture. It succeeds here, so to speak, to jump beyond our time radius and to fall back on experiences and information that nourish us today. The ability to extract energy from the fossil has been a tremendous cultural achievement. Something that is actually dead, and passed by evolution, can be used again for life. These are actually already the first medial processes. It’s very interesting that you relate media practices to the fossil. The fossil fuels show that the media have the tendency to skip the laws of evolution, the core of which is death.

Peter Weibel to Michael Saup, Karlsruhe, 2002
AVATAR, 2010 Berlin