Banz & Bowinkel

Poly Mesh, 2020

Banz & Bowinkel have been nominated for DKB's VR ART PRIZE with the virtual reality piece Poly Mesh.

The VR experience Poly Mesh is an interactive, virtual chamber play in seven acts. In an apocalyptic future, the viewer encounters an artificial intelligence (AI) whose calculation of coming events has come to nothing. The appearance of the viewer tears the AI, represented by masked avatars, out of this homeostatic agony and forces a new loop of calculations in a final “job”, which now revolves entirely around the viewer as the great unknown variable. A new performance of the avatars begins, triggered by the human being as an error in the system. The VR experience is complemented by an augmented reality application that projects a virtual grid into the exhibition space; the word chains of the avatars can be played at its nodes.

Listen to Banz & Bowinkel about their art work "Poly Mesh"

profile Banz & Bowinkel

Giulia Bowinkel, together with Friedemann Banz, form the Berlin-based artist duo Banz & Bowinkel. In their work, Banz & Bowinkel focus on the computer as an everyday device and its influence on human culture. The focus here is on the perception of the world, which people understand as reality and is now simulated via the computer. With their work, Banz & Bowinkel question the concept of simulated reality and thereby human perception of the world in virtual space.

The multi-award-winning works of Giulia Bowinkel and Friedemann Banz have been exhibited at the Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach (G), the House of Electronic Arts in Basel (CH), the Halle für Kunst & Medien in Graz (AUT), the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen as well as Haus Esters/Haus Lange in Krefeld (G).