As we, the guest editorial team, gathered to choose the visual direction for our issue, we knew the image selected would need to capture the spirit of curiosity that lies at the heart of this volume. The artist and philosopher Kilian Jörg, one of the authors featured in our issue, provided us…
In the spring of 2023 an unusual exhibition opened in Düsseldorf. Its visitors did not find any paintings, sculptures, or installations to look at, but instead, found texts to read. These texts were printed…
The lines between present and future have blurred. In 2023, the German photographer Boris Eldagsen made waves by submitting an AI-generated image titled The Electrician to the Sony World Photography Award. This…
Codes can be read or written, imposed or resisted, performed or enacted; they can be broken or switched, made explicit or implemented covertly, can reinforce binaries or explode into multiplicities. Codes hold power over subjectivity and the individual, to shape relationships and the social; they are socio-technological assemblages and tacitly give structure to cultures. Often, it is only when codes are altered that we become aware of their cultural power.
When we, the guest editors of this issue, had our first look at the picture of the inter-medial installation Susanne fotografiert mich beim Bade [Susanne Photographs Me Bathing] (2011/2012/2018) by Viennese artist Hannahlisa Kunyik, we were immediate-ly intrigued by the image’s ambiguity. Looking at the picture, even if it is just a detail of the artwork which now figures as the cover of this On_Culture issue, has spurred questions that have preoccupied us during our studies of in_visibilities and representation: what or who becomes in_visible here, why and how?
