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  • TRANSDUCERS
  • Verena Friedrich

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TRANSDUCERS is an experimental installation composed of several transparent glass tubes hanging at different heights through the space. Hair samples that have been collected from different individuals have been implanted into the custom-made laboratory glass tubes.

A single human hair can be merely debris, but once its information is decoded through DNA analysis it reveals itself to be the repository of our biological blueprint. TRANSDUCERS explores this phenomenon by providing an alternative means of decoding and classification. Enhanced with electronics, these vessels bring the inanimate biological matter to life again: the object under investigation—the human hair—is triggered by the machinery and is stimulated to react. This reaction is registered, amplified, and transduced into an audible output that encodes the hair’s physiological constitution. Each of the devices generates a unique sound based on the donors’ individual hair samples. TRANSDUCERS seeks to question the dominance of science in describing and classifying life and its basic units. Every audible result provides a technological interpretation of identity, produced by an arrangement that points beyond itself to a future reference system yet to be developed, freely oscillating between life and laboratory work.

Verena Friedrich is a German artist and tinkerer with a deep interest in science and technology. Starting from a highly personal and emotional point, she avails herself of technical media to develop conceptual artworks that critically refer to socially relevant issues. Friedrich studied fine [End Page 370] arts and electronic media at the University of Art and Design Offenbach and at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Her works have been presented at various media art festivals and exhibitions and have been granted the \\international\media\award\2005 for science and art from ZKM Karlsruhe. She received a nomination for the Transmediale Award 2008. Friedrich also teaches at the University of Art and Design Offenbach.


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[End Page 371]

Verena Friedrich
University of Art and Design Offenbach
Germany
info@heavythinking.org
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