Aram Bartholl

Aram Bartholl graduated from Berlin University of the Arts in 2001 with an engineer's degree in architecture. His graduate thesis "Bits on Location" won the 2001 Browserday competition.{{cite news|last1=Dauerer|first1=Verena|title=Wenn der Gullydeckel piept|url=http://www.taz.de/1/archiv/?id=archivseite&dig=2001/12/06/a0161|accessdate=6 January 2017|publisher=TAZ|date=6 December 2001}} During Bartholl's studies, he held a nine-month internship position at the Rotterdam-based architecture office MVRDV. From 1996 to 2000, Bartholl was part of the artist group "Freies Fach" which was known for its discourse on urban matters and for its public interventions.[http://www.anarchitektur.com/jetztundzehn/biographie/bigness.html Biographie 'Freies Fach'] He was also a member of the Internet-based Free Art and Technology Lab a.k.a. F.A.T. Lab founded by Evan Roth and James Powderly from 2009 until its discontinuation{{cite web|title=FFFFFAREWELL.AT|url=http://fffff.at/byebye/|website=fffff.at|date=August 2015 |accessdate=13 December 2016}} in 2015.

Aram Bartholl is variously identified as a media artist,{{cite web|last1=Voon|first1=Claire|title=Fire Up a Wifi Router Hidden Inside a Rock|url=http://hyperallergic.com/231483/fire-up-a-wifi-router-hidden-inside-a-rock/|website=Hyperallergic|date=27 August 2015|accessdate=6 January 2017}} a conceptual artist,{{cite web|title=Aram Bartholl|url=https://www.artsy.net/artist/aram-bartholl|website=artsy.net|accessdate=6 January 2017}} a post-digital artist, and an interdisciplinary artist.{{cite news|last1=Moakly|first1=Paul|title=Street View and Beyond: Google's Influence on Photography|url=https://time.com/55683/street-view-and-beyond-googles-influence-on-photography/|access-date=6 January 2017|date=24 October 2012}} Bartholl’s work has been associated with that of Constant Dullaart and Evan Roth among others.{{cite news|last1=Heiser|first1=Jörg|title=Die Kunst der digitalen Eingeborenen|url=http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/post-internet-art-die-kunst-der-digitalen-eingeborenen.1184.de.html?dram:article_id=304141|accessdate=18 February 2017|publisher=Deutschlandfunk|date=11 January 2015}} He meticulously examines the implications of digital media and the changes in environment and circumstance that have resulted; he attained global recognition for his seminal work, Map (2006), an installation in public space that bridges the real and virtual worlds.{{cite web|last1=ARTINPOST|title=Art & Technology #13: Aram Bartholl Against the Prevalence of Digital Media|url=http://brand.hyundai.com/en/art/art-world/art-technology-aram-bartholl.do|website=Hyundai Art World|accessdate=18 February 2017}} In Bartholl's play on video game adaptations, he also connects the virtual and real world in new ways.{{cite web| url=https://gizmodo.com/203130/gizmodo-gallery-aram-bartholl-sees-in-fps-mode/ |title=Aram Bartholl Sees in FPS Mode |date=29 September 2006 |author=Jonah Brucker-Cohen |publisher=Gizmodo.com |accessdate=18 June 2014}}{{cite web| url=http://www.next-gen.biz/features/auteur-focus |title=Auteur Focus | date=22 August 2008 |publisher=Edge-Online.com | accessdate=19 June 2014}}

Bartholl has also explored new curatorial formats to represent digital art. In SPEED SHOW gallery-like openings are created for browser-based artworks in public internet cafes.{{cite news|last1=Dunkelmann|first1=Martin|title="Speed Show" - das neue Ausstellungskonzept von Aram Bartholl|url=http://creative.arte.tv/de/episode/speed-show-das-neue-ausstellungskonzept-von-aram-bartholl?language=en|accessdate=23 January 2017|publisher=Arte TV|date=31 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202025308/http://creative.arte.tv/de/episode/speed-show-das-neue-ausstellungskonzept-von-aram-bartholl?language=en|archive-date=2 February 2017|url-status=dead}} In 2014, Bartholl curated Full Screen an exhibition of digital art presented on a variety of screens, including wearables, featuring works by artists including Ai Weiwei, Constant Dullaart, Rafaël Rozendaal and Evan Roth.

As visiting professor at Kassel Art School] (Kunsthochschule Kassel, Bartholl has taught Visual Communication/New Media since 2015.{{cite web|title=Aram Bartholl|url=http://www.kunsthochschulekassel.de/personen/personen-details/person/bartholl-aram.html|website=Kunsthochschulekassel|accessdate=21 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170219102420/http://www.kunsthochschulekassel.de/personen/personen-details/person/bartholl-aram.html|archive-date=19 February 2017|url-status=dead}} He was also visiting professor in Design Media Arts at UCLA, Los Angeles in the Winter/Spring quarter 2016.{{cite web |title= Visiting Faculty |url= http://dma.ucla.edu/faculty/profiles/?ID=107 |publisher= UCLA Design Media Arts |website= dma.ucla.edu |accessdate= 21 February 2017 |archive-date= 19 February 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170219125942/http://dma.ucla.edu/faculty/profiles/?ID=107 |url-status= dead }}

Keepalive is a permanent outdoor sculpture in Niedersachsen, Germany, commissioned by the Center for Digital Cultures, Leuphana University Lüneburg. The title, Keepalive, refers to the keepalive signal, a message – often sent at predetermined intervals – that is used on networks to check the link between two devices, to make a diagnosis or to indicate to the internet infrastructure that the connection should be preserved. Domenico Quaranta described the work as generating, "...a fiction that ironically locates it in a post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk scenario where humanity has been “kept alive”, the internet is over and power is provided by fire, but also where technologies and pieces of information have survived as digital junk. Presented as an artwork and preserved as such, it may once turn useful and even essential for a wandering Mad Max to survive, as the only remaining access point to basic information."{{cite web|last1=QUARANTA|first1=DOMENICO|title=Oh, When the Internet Breaks at Some Point|url=https://mefsite.wordpress.com/2016/05/12/domenico-quaranta-oh-when-the-internet-breaks-at-some-point/|website=MEDIA IN THE EXPANDED FIELD Site|date=12 May 2016|publisher=Montabonel & Partners|accessdate=26 January 2017}}

File:Dead Drops by Aram Bartholl sthemessage in Kunstenlab (6636685395).jpg

Bartholl's ongoing Dead Drops project, started in 2010, set up an offline peer-to-peer file-sharing network at five public locations in New York using dead drops: USB sticks cemented into walls. The project has expanded exponentially around the world—over 1,400 of them have been placed in dozens of countries, including South Africa, Ghana, Germany, Iran and Russia.{{cite web|last1=Markowitz|first1=Eric|title=The Odd World Of USB "Dead Drops"|url=http://www.vocativ.com/tech/internet/odd-world-usb-dead-drops/|website=vocativ|date=13 February 2015|accessdate=26 January 2017}}

The Dead Drops concept was extended in 2013 with the DVD Dead Drop installation at the Museum of the Moving Image (New York City). Bartholl embedded an inconspicuous, slot-loading DVD burner into the side of the Museum, available to the public 24 hours a day. Visitors who found the Dead Drop and inserted a blank DVD-R received a digital art exhibition, a collection of media, or other featured content curated by Bartholl or selected artists.{{cite web|last1=Steinhauer|first1=Jillian|title=Somewhere Between Cyber and Real: An Interview with Aram Bartholl|url=http://hyperallergic.com/55777/somewhere-between-cyber-and-real-an-interview-with-aram-bartholl/|website=Hyperallergic|date=20 August 2012|accessdate=20 February 2017}}

In 2011, Dead Drops was included in the "Talk to Me" show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

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File:Map by Aram Bartholl at the show Hello World, Kasseler Kunstverein2013.jpg

In 2006, Bartholl created a public art installation called Map. Bartholl installs a large physical representation of the Google Maps pin in the exact location that Google Maps identifies as the centre of a city.{{Cite web|url=http://www.goethe.de/ins/ee/prj/gtw/aus/wer/bar/enindex.htm|title = Tunneta kultuuri}}{{cite web|url=http://creative.arte.tv/fr/community/map-2006-2010 |title="Map", 2006-2010 | ARTE Creative |accessdate=2014-12-10 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216102953/http://creative.arte.tv/fr/community/map-2006-2010 |archivedate=2014-12-16 }} Locations thus far have included Taipei, Berlin, Arles, Tallinn and Kassel. Each sculpture remains in place for about three months, usually coinciding with a local art festival or exhibit.{{Cite web|url=http://datenform.de/blog/tag/map/|title=Map – Aram Bartholl}}

The series was designed to raise viewers' awareness of the increasing overlap between the virtual and the physical, and to highlight mapping services' influence on perceptions of location. Bartholl's physical representations of the Google Maps pin urges viewers to reevaluate the information given by digitized maps, the meaning of the “center” of a city, the politicization of boundaries, and other issues related to maps and the digital versus the physical world.{{Cite web|url=http://www.datenform.de/mapeng.html|title = Map – Aram Bartholl}}

Bartholl's work has been shown internationally in solo and group exhibitions.

He is one of the artists selected{{cite web|last1=dpa|title="Skulptur Projekte" greift erstmals Digitalisierung auf|url=http://www.monopol-magazin.de/skulptur-projekte-greift-erstmals-digitalisierung-auf|website=monopol magazine|publisher=monopol|accessdate=23 January 2017}} for the 5th Skulptur Projekte Münster in 2017, a once every ten years exhibition curated by Kasper König that has previously featured artists such as Naim Jun Paik, Mike Kelly, Rachael Whiteread, Mark Wallinger and Rosemarie Trockel.

Aram Bartholl's 2016 solo show at Kunstverein Arnsberg, #remindmelater,{{cite web|title=Aram Bartholl Remind me later|url=http://www.kunstverein-arnsberg.de/aram-bartholl|website=Kunstverein Arnsberg|accessdate=23 January 2017}} featured the public performance Greenscreen Arnsberg,{{cite web|last1=Bartholl|first1=Aram|title=Greenscreen Arnsberg|url=https://vimeo.com/174187401|website=Vimeo|date=11 July 2016|accessdate=23 January 2017}} which "caught" passers by with a portable green screen.

Solo Shows:

• 2016 Remind me later - Kunstverein Arnsberg, Arnsberg
• 2015 Point Of View - Babycastles Gallery, New York City, NY{{cite web|last1=Stern|first1=Becky|title=Aram Bartholl's Point of View Exhibition #WearableWednesday|url=https://blog.adafruit.com/2015/02/25/aram-bartholls-point-of-view-exhibition-wearablewednesday/|website=adafruit|date=25 February 2015|accessdate=18 February 2017}}
• 2014 Hurt me plenty - DAM GALLERY Berlin, Berlin{{Cite web |title=Hurt me plenty {{!}} {{!}} atractivoquenobello |url=https://www.aqnb.com/tag/hurt-me-plenty/ |access-date=2023-09-08 |website=www.aqnb.com}}
• 2013 Hello World! - Kasseler Kunstverein, Kassel{{Cite news |last=Baumgärtel |first=Tilman |date=2013-09-04 |title=Medienkunst-Ausstellung in Kassel: Ein Flackern in der Cyberwirklichkeit |language=de |work=Die Tageszeitung: taz |url=https://taz.de/!5059879/ |access-date=2023-09-08 |issn=0931-9085}}
• 2012 Reply All, DAM Berlin, Germany{{cite magazine|last1=Sterling|first1=Bruce|title=Aram Bartholl: Reply All exhibition + "The Speed Book," Berlin|url=https://www.wired.com/2012/01/aram-bartholl-reply-all-exhibition-the-speed-book-berlin/|magazine=WIRED|accessdate=20 February 2017}}

In 2007 Bartholl received an honorable mention from transmediale for the piece "Random Screen"Transmediale honorable mention and with the concept for the performance piece "Sociial" he won the 17th Video Art Award Bremen 2007.[http://www.filmbuero-bremen.de/700.0.html Video Art Award Bremen 2007.] In 2011, Dead Drops received an Honorable Mention at Ars Electronica.{{cite web|title=Honorary Mention 2011|url=http://archive.aec.at/prix/#42461|website=Ars Electronica|accessdate=20 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190630155735/http://archive.aec.at/prix/#42461|archive-date=30 June 2019|url-status=dead}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|http://datenform.de/indexeng.html}} datenform.de
• [http://datenamort.de/eng/indexe.html "Bits on Location" thesis 2001]
• [http://fffff.at/ F.A.T.] Free Art and Technology Lab
• [http://www.deaddrops.com/ Deaddrops database and information.]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110401173110/http://creative.arte.tv/de/space/Aram_Bartholl/messages/ Videos of Aram Bartholl : „Map“ (2006-10), „Dead Drops“ (2010), “Highscreen” (2011)]

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Category:1972 births

Category:German conceptual artists

Category:Living people

Category:Artists from Berlin

Category:Berlin University of the Arts alumni

Category:Digital artists

Category:UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture faculty