Floater #01 - No Gravitation

#01 on Floatation / Floater Magazine suggests an inventory of floatation mechanisms within architecture; Without Stability, Without Foundation / Flip is an ocean research platform that capsizes in order to maintain its stability. Yannikos Vassiloulis presents the mechanism of this paradoxical stability / Armin Linke’s images of astronauts and divers project the realities of a utopian body equipped with prosthetics that provide the ability to exist in conditions of No Gravitation / Wave Garden by Yusuke Obuchi and Meduseabloo by b. are performative, highly intelligent environments capable of collecting and administrating data / In 1968, Takis invented Oscillation of the Sea; a device that translates the motion of the sea surface into kinetic energy / Dimitris Antonakakis describes the chronicle of an unusual project commissioned to Atelier66; redesigning the cruiser Libra Y the parameters of instability and non foundation demarcate a new territory for the architect / Louisa Adam explores architectural strategies and practices within contemporary cultural concerns, commenting on OMA’s Harbour of Ideas / Nikos Navridis cooperated with floater magazine for the production of a digital representation of his recent show Tomorrow will be a Wonderful Day... / Evi Sougara's interactive animation is based on J. Swift's Laputa; a mythical island from the novel Gulliver's Travels / Takis Zenetos’ Electronic Urban Planning Utopia is negotiated in juxtaposition with Maurizio Cattelan’s installation Mise-en-Scene. Nikos Tsimas declares floatation experiences as parameters that can provoke feelings of Pleasure and Awe / Micro-organisations, by Elysa Lozano, reflects the socio-political realities of Sealand's micronation, where the artist explores the potential of registering and developing a not for profit organization / in Floating and Sinking in Psychoanalysis Nikos Sideris analyses the mechanisms of floating and sinking in relation to both psychic structure and spatiality / Giorgos Lagoudakis suggests legal aspects of Floating Territories presenting specific archival cases along with the relative legal texts.

Floater #01 edited by Yannis Arvanitis, Elina Axioti, Yannis Papayannakis, Evi Sougara, Eleni Spiridaki, Yannikos Vassiloulis / Fall 2008.

No Gravitation
Armin Linke
Text: Elina Axioti

'The sequence of images I'm working on is a search for utopian places that already exist and have, or had, utopian potential.' [+]

Armin Linke, photographer and filmmaker, is working on an ongoing archive about human activity and the variations of natural and man-made landscapes. Through his photographs, he aims to document scenes in which the boundary between fiction and non-fiction blurs or becomes invisible.

In 1998, Linke photographed the International Space Base (ILA International Luft und Raumfahrtaustellung) in Berlin and the Star City ZPK in Star City near Moscow. Astronauts´ uniforms, control consoles, weightlessness simulations systems and processes were captured by his lens. This series of images, present an artificial landscape, a man made technological entity that creates simulations of fluid spaces. Linke´s images attempt to narrate how people interact in these free-gravity environments. His photographs acquire an additional anthropological utility, by presenting a seemingly distant reality. They allow a new physical perception by demonstrating the human living in liquid, unstable conditions; in spaces of continuous floating.

'Photography in itself doesn't interest me much; what interests me more is what to photograph and how to distribute the image.' [+]

These images are part of the Book on Demand [+], an interactive archive of Linke´s pictures that was first presented in the Utopia Station, Venice Biennial, 2003. The Book on Demand contains a series of images registered with keywords under certain categories in a software. The software allows the viewer to select and compose his own sequences of images and finally order a personalised book on demand.

Classification and categorization are notions familiar to Linke´s work. His projects include contemporary strategies of archiving and representation. The photographer employs different ways of displaying his infinite archive, in an indecipherable relationship between photography and art.

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