Artists Space

Contemporary Architecture -
an installation by realities:united

June 15 – July 28, 2007

Curated by Christian Rattemeyer, Contemporary Architecture presents an installation by realities:united.

Design team: Jan Edler, Tim Edler, Mason Juday
Planning & assembly: Mason Juday

Fuel prices listed in white numbers separated by red lines on a dark blue display sign.
[Fuel prices listed in white numbers separated by red lines on a dark blue display sign.]

Contemporary Architecture presents a minimalist installation by the Berlin-based architects and artists of realities:united. Two digits of 7-segment display, formed using industrial fluorescent tubes, are suspended from the ceiling. The installation is light sign, information carrier, and light source at the same time.

As a “display,” the installation is used to show the current time in minutes. At the same time–as light installation–it is the only light source inside the exhibition space and therefore it serves as the necessary pragmatic lighting source. While the displayed information is changing every minute, the overall light intensity is kept on a constant level during all times, thus the appearance of the exhibition space is changed subtly but constantly. “Below” realities:united contextualizes the installation above–both conceptually and within their work.

realities:united prioritizes organization-as-design above elemental or ornamental design. In this sense, the installation’s design is the idea rather than the object. The “normal” is connected and rearranged in a manner which results in an effect greater than sum of its parts. The goal is not to beguile the viewer with shiny objects, rather it is to collect and organize the environment in a subtle, non-intrusive, yet fundamentally altering way. This effort ideally breathes some life into the ambient technology, perhaps even some playfulness, which hints at the potential without an overt aesthetic agenda, and with an incorporative attitude towards content.

For more information visit: www.realU.de.

In 2000 the brothers Tim Edler and Jan Edler founded realities:united (realU), a studio for art, architecture, and technology. realities:united develops and supports architectural solutions, usually incorporating new media and information technologies. The office provides consulting, planning, and research, also undertaking projects for clients such as museums, businesses, and other architectural firms.

One major focus of realities:united is architecture’s outward communicative capacity. Another is the quality of the user experience inside spaces, which in function and appearance is essentially augmented and changed by additional layers carrying information, media content, and communication. Some of the studio’s projects resemble classical architectural work, but venture regularly into art, design, or technology research. Most projects are intended to serve as a catalyst in a given situation, and are therefore strongly determined by identifying, transforming, amplifying, and combining various existing potentials. In that sense the approach centers on taking advantage of available opportunities, rather than specific skills, procedures, or tasks. Although the majority of the projects incorporate new technologies or experimental approaches in one way or the other, the work always aims to affect actuality, not virtuality.

Strategic initiative and a high proportion of communication and mediation in work processes mark many of the firm’s innovative projects. This approach creates the bridge between utopian ideas, abstract conceptions, and realizations and has been recognized internationally. Currently realities:united is working on new projects in Europe, Asia, and the USA.

In a gallery space, a large white overhead LED-style sign acts as both a drop ceiling and overhead lighting. It displays two numbers, a 2 and a 3. Below are a black sofa and, facing it, a small television on a wooden pedestal.
Contemporary Architecture - an installation by realities:united. Installation view, Artists Space, 2007. Photo: Bill Orcutt. [In a gallery space, a large white overhead LED-style sign acts as both a drop ceiling and overhead lighting. It displays two numbers, a 2 and a 3. Below are a black sofa and, facing it, a small television on a wooden pedestal.]
In a gallery space, a large white overhead LED-style sign acts as both a drop ceiling and overhead lighting. It displays two numbers, a 2 and a 5. Below are a black sofa and, facing it, a small television on a wooden pedestal.
Contemporary Architecture - an installation by realities:united. Installation view, Artists Space, 2007. Photo: Bill Orcutt. [In a gallery space, a large white overhead LED-style sign acts as both a drop ceiling and overhead lighting. It displays two numbers, a 2 and a 5. Below are a black sofa and, facing it, a small television on a wooden pedestal.]

Contemporary Architecture is supported by Elise Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown; the Swiss-based company SE Lightmanagement; and the German-based company BJB GmbH & Co. KG.

    An overhead view of a very modern building with a dark, bulbous, skin-like facade. Protruding from its top are tuberous skylights all facing the same direction, and at left is a long elevated walkway.
    realities:united, BIX Comminicative Display Skin, 2003. Photo: H. Schiffer. [An overhead view of a very modern building with a dark, bulbous, skin-like facade. Protruding from its top are tuberous skylights all facing the same direction, and at left is a long elevated walkway.]