Nicola L. Hein (*1988 in Düsseldorf, Germany) is a guitarist, composer and sound artist. He is studying Jazzguitar, Philosophy, Soundart and German philology at Friedrich-Wilhelms University Bonn and Gutenberguniversity Mainz.
As a guitarist he is mainly concerned about the search for new sounds on his instrument. He plays electric and acoustic guitar with or without preparations and tries to find new ways of playing the guitar within the context of free improvised music and Jazz. He plays the guitar with his hands and plectrum but also with a lot of different objects: screws, rulers, iron wool, violin bow, abrasive paper, magnets and many other objects which are part of his musical vocabulary.
As sound artist he is mainly involved with sound installations which involve the recipient as a part of the actual work, because the work has to be played by the recipient. The works encourage the recipient to make a special aesthetic experience with different sounds. The aesthetic of these sounds is inspired by the aesthetics of free improvised music.
He has worked with: Paul Lytton, Phil Minton, John Russell, Michael Vorfeld, Rudi Mahall, Christian Lillinger, Axel Dörner, Thomas Lehn, Tobias Delius, Tristan Honsinger, Audrey Chen, Etienne Nillesen, Peter Jacquemyn, Robert Landfermann, Carl Ludwig Hübsch, Paul Hubweber, Philip Zoubek, Matthias Muche, Sebastian Gramss, Frank Paul Schubert, Ignaz Schick, Korhan Erel, Alfred Zimmerlin, Harald Kimmig etc.
Claudia Schmitz (*1975 in Mainz, Germany) is a timebased media artist. After studying film and media studies, art history and mathematics in Mainz and Cologne, she graduated from the KHM Köln – Academy of Media Arts Cologne.
Artist’s Statement “My work starts where the media intersect. I am not interested in the modernity of technology as such but in its capacities for creating new imaginary dimensions. My arrangements constantly assume temporary states, reject and re-invent themselves, exploring the space-time continuum, rendering visible and questioning its borders. They investigate the limitations of media arrangements and modes of participation.“
As an international timebased media artist, Claudia Schmitz explores boundaries: Limits of perception, real and imagined barriers, liquid processes, body discourses.
She explores paradigms of media translation – as a solo artist and in collaborative projects. She uses sculpture (paper, pneumatic etc…), multidimensional drawing, moving image, and food – in real space, virtual and augmented reality to explore new forms of sound, space and experience. Exploring socio-urban fabrics, challenging hegemonial perception, sustainability, synaesthesia, identity in virtual and real space, re- vs. interactivity, inter- and transmediality, machine learning, artificial intelligence are main topics of her current artistic research.
By passing through temporary stages, by discarding and re-inventing themselves, her pieces explore oscillating stages of being and non-being, of existence inside and outside the image. Relying on the spectators to trigger them, many of her pieces discuss the extent and possibilities of participation.
internationally active artist and educator – won numerous awards and nominations – present in international public and private collections.
http://www.cces-claudiaschmitz.de
