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DP = German Premiere
EP = European Premiere
WP = World Premiere
Artist Talk: "Image Fulgurator"
Julius von Bismarck developed the possibility of a »minimal-invasive« manipulation of photographic images. While others take photographs, he subtly uses the Image Fulgurator (Goldene Nica at the Ars Electronica 2008/»Interactive Art«) to hack into the photograph, he manipulates and brands the photo or the motif with symbols and sentences that give viewers cause to doubt their own perception of reality.
The Image Fulgurator is an unusually simple combination of a camera and a flash-unit which, nevertheless, is devised in the opposite direction to its original functions. If the device’s sensor system registers a flash, the device – like a projector – sends a light pulse through the already exposed and developed film in the camera and through the lens onto a motif that happens to be photographed by someone else. This photographer now finds the projection on his picture, which he didn’t notice when he took it. Undreamed-of possibilities of manipulating images come true, which Julius von Bismarck arranges as performative interventions. One of his most wellknown interventions is an activity that took place during Barack Obama’s visit to Berlin (in July 2008) when Bismarck projected the picture of a crucifix below the lectern from which the presidential candidate elect of the United States of America delivered his speech.
Another example of Bismarck’s work is the manipulation of photos taken beforehand by tourists in the visitors’ area of the Berlin Wall, to which he added a text that obviously had nothing to do with the original context: »Hundreds of people die on the border between Mexico and the USA«.
Image Fulgurator will be presented at the exhibition Image Battles.
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