Human Tool

The perception of a “functioning” human being is controlled by the senses – all of them at once. Separating these senses with technical tools allows one to focus on one sense separately. If we split the senses by technical device we split the body –transforming sensory information into data, projected onto a screen and made accessible in a new way.

A human is transformed into a tool - blindfolded in front of an empty canvas. Another human tries to use this tool to paint. The human tool has a camera attached to his head – the controller is limited by the information given through this device. The human tool gets instructions from the controller via headphones. – with this limited amount of perception and communication the controller tries to create a painting and the tool reacts according to the command.

Further explanation and a video that shows how it works can be found on

Webcam/camera Computer/or vcr Projector Screen Microphone Headphones Canvas/brush/paint

Lukas Birk born in Austria 1982.
Journalistic education in Austria.
Former journalist for Austrian/German radio stations and news papers.
Currently studying at Thames Valley University - Digital Arts and Photography. (3rd year). Working as photographer (Time Out Guides – Austrian Travel Guides…)
Projects:
Photographic exploration northern India, Nepal, Burma, Cambodia in 2003 with exhibition in Bregenz/Austria 2004.
Stuck agility at a single space – searching for a secret through photography 2005 - 2006
TimeSpace – animation 2006
Ygen – animation 2006
The sea is waiting 8mm shortfilm 2006
Fragments of Beijing 8mm shortfilm 2007
Human Tool - interactive Painting installation 2006 -2007
Kafkanistan – tourism in Afghanistan (45 minute documentary film and book both not published yet) 2005 – in progress

Lukas Birk
lukasbirk@fraglich.com
0044 7891 822 971