The Perfect Handshake
The Perfect Handshake
Frank Fietzek, 2019
An interactive sound collage from 100 years of Universität Hamburg’s history
This sculpture is the outpost of the anniversary exhibition 100! here at the Main Building.
Just turn the handle!
An interactive sound collage
In the forecourt of the university's main building stands an oversized stele with a crank on its front – a cross between a barrel organ and the mysterious monolith from the film "2001: A Space Odyssey." When not in use, the stele presents a relatively simple and closed-off appearance, constructed of black rolled steel, with a strangely foreign and attention-grabbing crank made of shiny stainless steel. By turning the crank, the viewer first initiates a mechanical change: a flap on the upper front of the stele opens, and a megaphone unfolds.
Subsequently, the megaphone begins to emit quotations and fragments from both the present and the history of the university. After a short time, a second flap opens, revealing an identical megaphone that interjects or responds with another quotation. The selections are made in such a way that a random, ever-new dialogue emerges – resulting in surprising connections that are often meaningful, yet at times absurd.
The sculpture is self-sufficient; the energy required for movement and sound is generated by the user through the act of cranking.
Frank Fietzek
Frank Fietzek is a media artist who has participated in numerous international exhibitions since the early 1990s. Additionally, he develops and implements interactive exhibits for museums, visitor centres, exhibitions, and trade fairs.Since 1994, he has taught at various institutions in the fields of design and art, including as a lecturer at the Merz Academy in Stuttgart, at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, as project leader at the Electronic Media Lab of the HfbK in Hamburg, as a visiting professor at the UdK Berlin, as a lecturer at Hyperwerk of FHNW Basel, and as a visiting professor at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle.
Frank Fietzek has received various awards and prizes, including a working scholarship from the ZKM Karlsruhe in 1993, two accolades from Ars Electronica Linz in 1999 and 2001, as well as the Senate Scholarship for Visual Arts from the city of Berlin in 2004.
Other works by the artist
As part of the exhibition for the Senate Scholarship of the City of Berlin, I created a small autonomous robot in the shape of a toy excavator in response to the work of fellow exhibiting artist Markus Wirthmann, who presented a machine-generated, room-filling sand dune.Over the course of the two-week exhibition, the excavator removes a portion of the dune and transports it to its own pile.
The work was first exhibited during the presentation of the scholarship holders in Visual Arts 2005 at the Kunstbank exhibition space in Berlin.