Achim Mohné

sending out bay leaves

While we all are forced to deal with the question of how art can be presented or even be created and live in virtual space, we would like to draw your attention to the series of works of Achim Mohné's 3D Google Earth models, in which he deals with the interpretation of works of art within virtual globes. 

3D-GOOGLE-EARTH-MODEL # 7,
Die Erdkugel als Koffer a collaboration with Peter Weibel, 2020

"Peter Weibel’s sculpture "The globe as a suitcase“ (2004) is a symbol of a mobile society that has now come to a standstill. Currently we are not allowed to travel or visit land art projects on site. This video simulates a virtual drone flight around the sculpture, based on a three-dimensional model, rendered from Google Earth data by using a photogrammetric process. Idiosyncrasy of the algorithm and new forms of perceiving art in public spaces.

Land Art, which lives from the space-time relationship, is re-read by virtual space: space, time, distance, proximity are shifted. Google Earth allows us to approach landscapes from a distance, but with deductions: "3D_Google_Earth_Model_7" reflects the glitches, the absurd appearing deformations and the "simplified language" of the algorithm: abysses, missing paths, flying trees. Where, if not in the suitcase of the globe, is the missing data stored to complete our idea of reality? And who holds the handl? A collaboration with Peter Weibel."

Achim Mohné, 2020

3D-GOOGLE-EARTH-MODEL # 6,
Richard Serra, 3D-rendering, 2019

"Therefore, turning something immaterial back into material, Achim Mohné's print sculptures after Google Earth show a 3D-printed model of a specific location and urban environment, or even public artworks like Robert Indiana's iconic "LOVE"-monument in NYC, Richard Serra's much-debated "Terminal" in Bochum, Germany, or Peter Weibel's “The Globe as a Suitcase” (2004) at the Österreichischer Skulpturenpark Graz, Austria, as seen by the ubiquitous aerial photography of orbital satellites. The scale model is based on a unique analog-digital process which the German media artist recently developed with rendering 3D-software. Thus, instead of photographing the real spaces on Earth, Achim Mohné takes hundreds of pictures directly in the available map apps, using virtual ‘camera drones’—a method that can be compared to the popular In-Game-Photography among young gamers. However, Achim Mohné takes numerous ‘shots’ from all sides and ankles of a selected location. Using computer-based and algorithm-enhanced photogrammetry, a 3-dimensional, virtual, architectural model is rendered from these various screenshots. The syntheses are then printed in 3D and displayed in the art gallery as material exponats. At the same time, the 3D-Google Earth-model, when viewed from above, and because of its photographed and 3D-printed color, strikingly resembles the underlying Google Earth satellite images and, at first glance, appears to be a kind of eerie ‘material picture’ of the place itself."

Prof. Dr. Pamela C. Scorzin,

Orbital Art in the Age of Internet and Space Flight: From Terrestrial to Orbital Perspectives

— with a particular focus on German artist Achim Mohné, in: Art Style | Art & Culture International

Magazine, vol 5, issue 5, March 2020, pp. 25 – 49. 

https://issuu.com/me7884/docs/art_style_magazine___volume_5___issue_5____march_2

3D-GOOGLE-EARTH-MODEL # 5 Galerie Schierke Seinecke, Frankfurt, 2020

Achim Mohné

based in Cologne

After my studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, I completed my postgraduate studies in 1997 in the class of Jürgen Klauke and Valie Export at the KHM Cologne. This was followed by guest professorships at the Kunstakademie Münster, Folkwang University of the Arts Essen, Indiana University, Bloomington, among others.

In 2007, I founded REMOTEWORDS with Uta Kopp. From 2013 to WS 2019/2020 I taught photography and new media at the ETH Zurich, where my last position was head of 3D research.

In my photo-based works I deal - in the context of a socio-critical discourse - with the function of images that can be understood as a link between social, interdisciplinary and intermedial actions.

In my work, terms such as apparatus, interface and intermediality, the post-photographic and the virtual play a major role. Through media projects and performances, such as " Remotewords " or the series "Seen_through_the_Eyes_of_Google_Earth ", I draw on the new digital media and communication technologies and try to rethink perception and redefine consciousness.

’Digital immateriality and virtual physicality' - these are topics that challenge and fascinate me as an artist. Since my studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts Essen, at the KHM Cologne, or during my research work at the ETH Zurich in the field of 3D modelling/3D printing, I have been influenced by Vilém Flusser, or Isamu Noguchi, among others.

www.achimmohné.net