RaumZeitPiraten
Physarum

The RaumZeitPiraten group has been active as such since 2007 and consists of Tobias Daemgen, Jan Ehlen and Moritz Ellerich. The so-called technology artists combine media such as performance, site-specific spatial installations, immersive environments, moving sculptures and interactive instruments. The group is particularly interested in the relationship between man and machine, which they always critically scrutinise in their works in order to propose new, open models beyond the worship and rejection of technology.

Well represented in the world of light art, RaumZeitPiraten were on show last year alone at City of Light in Finland, the SUPERLUMINAL light art museum in Budapest and the Sonarpark in Gmünd, Austria.

As part of the Water Light Festival 2024, the group is showing the interactive artwork Physarum on the facade of the church Erhardskirche in Brixen. The work consists of a generative algorithm that manifests itself in an interactive mapping, meaning that an active, constantly changing algorithm will draw a projection on the façade of the church. As the title suggests, the mapping is about a slime mould, Physarum polycephalum, or rather its growth strategy translated into machine language.

There are many small, analogue circuits on the building that record and collect data such as the weather conditions or the movements of passers-by. The digital mushroom mesh uses this data to adapt to the environment and thus constantly changes its appearance (the projection) and that of the façade.