Karlsruhe media artist and filmmaker Jonas Denzel transforms the castle into a body of sound. He develops his show »hands-on« for the SCHLOSSLICHTSPIELE: The hands were man's first tools. They knock, rub and clap on the castle facade until they finally encourage the audience to clap along and thus become part of the rousing rhythm through inviting gestures. The sound is created and visualized exclusively by elements of the castle such as windows, rain gutters and walls as well as body percussion. The castle itself even becomes an instrument, a piano played by hands. The sounds that can be heard were recorded at the castle: Jonas Denzel made the rain gutters, windows and walls sound.
hands-on awarded for public favourite at Schlosslichtspiele 2018
Thanks to the ZKM Videostudio for providing me with some of their video footage.
Photos 1–4: ARTIS-Uli Deck
Ships make their way through space. There is an interaction between humans and machine. People and obstacles guide the course of the ships. The ships are in a state of constant motion; never reaching a final destination.
An installation from Bastian Bley, Jonas Denzel and Marc Zeman, 2016
(University of Applied Science Mainz)
www.exsule.com
EXHIBITIONS:
Frankfurt Luminale, 13.03.-18.03.2016
CAR (Contemporary Art Ruhr), 03-05.06 2016
PRESS AND MEDIA:
Hessenschau
Hessischer Rundfunk
Allgemeine Zeitung
Lokalkompass
When will machines fully replace the human workforce? eight hours is a documentary that examines a single day of production inside a dry cleaning factory. The film investigates the interaction between humans and machines, where the worker's experience of simple repetitive labor is mirrored by the mechanical work of the factory robots. We explore an overlooked location full of colors, mechanical sounds, humans and machines.
Jury comment on winning "Short in Work" in Modena 2017:
For the capability to use the features of observational documentary. For the ability to turn the everyday gestures of a laundry into a sort of mechanical choreography. To have fostered our methodological reflection.
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION:
"Winner" Short on Work Film Contest,
Modena (ITA), 2017
"Best Graduate Film" Diamond Screen Film Festival, Philadelphia (USA), 2017
"Official Selection" Lux et Lex Student Film Festival, Lancaster (USA)
SCREENINGS:
HafenKunstKino, Düsseldorf, Germany (EU), 17th of October 2018
Enessimo Film Festival, Bologna, Italy (EU), 12th of April 2018
Short on Work Film Contest, Modena, Itlay (EU), 15th of December 2017
Diamond Screen Film Festival, Philadelphia (US), 1st of May 2017
Everything Must Go (Exhibition), Philadelphia (US), 25th of April 2017
Lux et Lex Film Festival, Lancaster (US), 22nd of April 2017
Temple Contemporary Gallery, Philadelphia (US), 19th of April 2017
Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (US), 4th of March 2017
Documentation of the performance “lappiskarum”. Filmed in Philadelphia (USA), 2017
Performance and Costume by Zero Descoto
Screenings:
HafenKunstKino, Düsseldorf, Germany (EU), 17th of October 2018
Documentation of the process on making a guitar where humans and machines interact together. Filmed at Martin Guitar Factory in Nazareth, PA (USA).
The Documentary got over 130.000 views via social media.
Screened at HafenKunstKino, Düsseldorf, Germany (EU), 17th of October 2018
#283 is a Videoinstallation by Jonas Denzel
It started with an order at America’s biggest restaurant chain, McDonald‘s. People eat from order #283. The focus is on consumption and the eating process, more specifically the mouth.
The installation is interactive. Viewers make their way through the mouths, and explore the eating process very closely, with all its nastiness and sounds. The work questions, where eating ends and where consumption begins.
Material: Projection on paper plates
Exhibited at "Diamond Screen Festival", Philadelphia (PA), May 2017
Resonance, a shortfilm about being lost and finding back to familiar place.
Written and directed by Jonas Denzel
Old Man – Gerardo Salazar - Borja
Young Man – Lyell Hintz
Director of Photography – Zach van Heel
Editor – Jonas Denzel
Composer Music – Sören Schaudel
Sound design drums – Christian Hays and Jonas Denzel
Gaffer – Alex Yarber
Sound – Qiyue Sun and Christian Hays
Script Supervisor – Hsin-Yu Chen
Cast – Jonas Denzel
Made at Temple University, Philadelphia 2016
For the „Schlosslichtspiele“ 2015 I designed a 30 sec commercial spot for the ZKM Karlsruhe (Center for Art and Media). The animation was projected on the 180m wide Castle of Karlsruhe. It adverts the 300 days long exhibition „Globale“.
Animation by Jonas Denzel
Sound Design by Holger Stenschke (ZKM)
Documentation by Jonas Denzel
The photographic series is shot while driving. Through long exposure and the cruising speed heterogeneous landscapes become linear and homogenized colour fields which reminds somebody of the coulor field paintings of
Mark Rothko.
„MyCity, Mysounds“ is an art App which deals with subliminal sounds of the city. It was produced by ZKM Karlsruhe (Center for Art
and Media).
My part was the conception and the production of the cinema commercial series.
Sound Design by Yannick Hoffmann
Screened at "Schauburg" Karlsruhe
Neon is an experimental photography series. Neonlight was used as light source.
Digital Photography 2016
By way of Augmented Reality (AR), the App »Karlsruhe Maptory« makes it possible to experience the forward-looking achievements of Karlsruhe personalities in 20th and 21st science and art. At various locations throughout the city performatively staged stories or musical events that overlap with reality are presented to viewers via mobile devices.
I designed the Animations for this project:
The upper Animation shows Bertha Benz first test drive with an automobile. One can see the development from the first automobile into the racing car "Silberpfeil" from Mercedes Benz.
The second Animation gives information about Emmy Schoch who was a well known dressmaker from Karlsruhe around the early 20th century.
This scenes were captured directly from an Ipad to show how the animation looks in reality.
Sounddesign by Holger Stenschke
»Karlsruhe Maptory« can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store.
See Making Of here
„Out of sight, out of mind!"
This phrase is significant when we talk about waste disposal. Where is our waste going? What kind of place is that and which kind of people are working there? „Wir sind für FC Bayern und für hübsche Frauen!" is dealing with those questions. This work gives the viewer the chance to get familiar with a place that usually doesn’t get much social attention: the recycling plant.
Not only human beings, machines and material are focused, but also that this apparently unpleasant and ugly place has exceptionally asthetic facets is demonstrated. Object and material dance as well as isolation are playing an important role in this context. Therefore it becomes evident that the recycling plant is a real sociotope.
Screened at "BYOB" at ZKM Karlsruhe
(January 2015)
This work is an alternative title sequence of the documentary film about the life of one of the most famous drummers in the world, Mr. Baker.
This video is created analogously. Glow sticks were placed on a drum, which jump through the air when the drum is beaten. Various per-
spectives and intentional blurring alienate the glow sticks, which produces interesting pictures.
Futura, since it perfectly harmonises with the image of the drums, was chosen for typography: the angles and edges are reflected in the sharp sounds of the instrument, at the same time as roundness of the letters symbolise the rotund drums. Because the typography is clear and distinctive, it constitutes good balance to the scattered pictures. The glow sticks jump up in front as well as behind the font, which neatly integrates it into the spatial picture. The music was recorded and played by myself.
This is a collection of my analog photographs. I captured moments in London, Paris, Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden and Mainz.
