Opening of the exhibition “Emergence in the oscillation among humans”

Emergence

In 2007, the European Forum Alpbach addresses the general topic of  Emergence . This project attempts an artistic approach to this complex and, at the same time, broad topic against the backdrop of the specific Alpbach situation. In a way, emergences are the norm in Alpbach, for new things emerge from the Forum on a regular basis.

The project describes humans, as social beings, as both the precondition for and the medium of emergences; therefore, it apparently approaches the topic not from the perspective of the natural sciences, but chooses a social science perspective. However, a physical dimension of the concept can be detected behind the quasi-emergent surface of human relations and social contexts. The relationship between the two levels is one of tension, which the series of works of art intends to illustrate and document. In a way, the question raised is that of the qualities of complexity. Is the complex interaction between human individuals different from that between atoms and molecules? If human society is a more complex structure than a chemical compound in a certain aggregate state, it must be possible to show, to depict this.

The aim is to identify and symbolise rational thinking, the individual and interactive  perhaps even collective  dimensions of human consciousness in their distinctiveness. For this reason, the project focuses on a group of human individuals. The group is depicted repeatedly, seemingly without any changes. In fact, however, composition and hierarchies vary across the images. Individuals rise from the anonymity of the group, as it were, and determine the latter by their individual characteristics  they become known. Each image portrays a different, concrete embodiment of the group, the notional consequence being different emergences. The individuals spotlighted in each image of the group give the group a different intellectual and social spin. New aspects emerge, but they are always different new aspects. Seemingly small changes of the situation at the outset trigger considerably varied scenarios of renewal.
Emergence  in the vibes between people.

Claudia Nebel

Born in Graz in 1972
Lives and works in Vienna
www.claudianebel.at