TIGER PHASED – Thomas Hawranke
Tiger PHASED
Tiger Phased is a meditation about the standardization of the wild in video games. 300 tigers fight each other on territory and supremacy in the digital vastness of the game-editor view. On the auditory layer, two 12-tone sequences can be heard, which have the same tone height but are played at slightly different speed. From this interference, new melodies emerge and create a trance-like experience in the interplay with the images: The motion of the tigers, the highlighting in their fur at the moment of death and the music make the underlying rhythm of the game-engine aesthetically experienceable and unmask the complex simulation of the wild as standardization.
Artist Statement Thomas Hawranke
In my artistic works I investigate the influence of technology on society and the inscriptions of social conventions into technical systems. My own actions are interventions at the threshold between the performance and modes of overstressing the underlying system. They address the border areas of calculating machines. At these borders’ contingencies, the new or the humorous can happen.
In my works I step into the tremendous image-worlds of video games, manipulate the data-structure and inject my own topics into the running system. I understand the video game space as a visually seductive surface material, which is deciphered through my own actions. By playing, I enable a differentiated view of the simultaneously present atmospheres and immersive moments. My questions are not only based on a media-reflective perspective on technology, but rather interrogate the in-game space with off-game social topics: Which role-models and social relationships are inscribed therein? How do economic, social and interactive spaces superimpose each other? Which power relations are present and which artistic strategies can we, as artists, use for our own needs?
I see my own artistic work not as a disconnected commentary, but rather as an attempt to interfere in the present power-architectures by using different composing-technics to restart a dialogue about the status-quo of the balance of power. The materials I use are selected from an extensive collection, draw from a deep understanding of the game space and include subcultural influences like chat-rooms, blogs, and forum contributions. Subcultural knowledge is mixed with scientific knowledge, experimental-objective methods are extended with subjective instruments of narration.