Curtain up for machines! From 30 June to 11 September, Netzwerk Medien Kunst and Rosy DX, in collaboration with the Dresden Technology Collections, will be showing over 15 positions as part of the international media art exhibition Magic Machines. These were honoured in advance by a jury in the categories of innovation, values, art and fun.
The Magic Machines exhibition is an ode to the ingenuity of the world! Simple and magnificent mechanisms - powered by wind, water, steam, electricity - characterise life on our planet. Did the first programmable machine dream of the algorithmic revolution and the universal use of computers? And what are all these new magical, impressive, frightening and silly machines that have entered our everyday lives up to? It's about particularly innovative and artistic machines. But it's also about ethics, values and diversity and, of course, human-machine interactions. And a lot of fun!
The Dresden Technology Collections are participating in the exhibition with the orchestrion The happy Jazz-Band (Popper & Co. GmbH Leipzig, 1920s). Pneumatic pianos play as if by magic in the cafés and dance halls of the early 20th century. They delighted the guests and replaced the human musicians. In the orchestrion by Leipzig instrument maker Popper, an entire band is controlled by negative air pressure. In addition to the piano, several percussion instruments can be heard. The depiction of the musicians, which is painted on the back of the drum, draws on stereotypical images of black people and clichéd ideas of African-American music culture that were widespread at the time.
The Dresden Technology Collections' "happy jazz band" can be experienced live again for the first time in the "Magic Machines" exhibition following extensive restoration.
Magic Machines show works by Amelie Goldfuss, Raumzeitpiraten, Markus Kolb, Jana Voigtmann and Alexander Voigt, Moritz Simon Geist, Sebastian Wolf, Emidio Battipaglia, Akwasi Bediako Afrane, Dries Depoorter, Anna Dumitriu, Marco Donnarumma, Stefan Hurtig, Matthias Pitscher & Giacomo Piazzi and Martin Bricelj Baraga.