Kathrin Hunze

Kathrin Hunze

Kathrin Hunze investigates the mechanisms & impacts of new technologies on complex systems, with a focus on ethical implications & how technological developments shape societal perceptions, interactions & narratives. In a nutshell: 'Tough but kind'

Kathrin Hunze is a Berlin-based media artist, visual artist, artistic researcher, and lecturer. She graduated from the University of the Arts Berlin as a Meisterschülerin and holds a Bachelor's in Communication Design from the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. She is a founding member and board member of multichrom.ev - Association for Art & Artistic Research Advancing Societal Openness and the Center for Artistic Research.ev. She is also part of the collectives nox&honig and raumperspektive.

Hunze has received scholarships from the Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. She has been an artist-in-residence at institutions such as the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (2023), MuseumsQuartier "Q21/Paraflows" in Vienna (2021), and the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics, Graz (2019). Her works have been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, Ostrale Biennale, Frauenmuseum Bonn, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Museum of Nordic Digital Art/Charlottenborg Kunsthal, Q21 MuseumsQuartier , Ars Electronica, Helmut Newton Museum. She has performed at Westbund Museum, Panke Gallery, Prater Gallery Museum für Naturkunde, CTM.

As a media and visual artist, Kathrin Hunze works in an artistic and research-based manner within an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary field of tension between art, design, technology, social, and natural sciences. Her work investigates the mechanisms and impacts of new technologies on complex systems, with a focus on ethical implications and how technological developments shape societal perceptions, interactions, and narratives. The audiovisual image is central to her practice, acting as a bridge between mediated realities and the sociocultural evolution of humanity, nature, and machines. Through installations, performances, sound/video essays, objects, websites, apps, and prints, she creates immersive spaces that critically engage with utopian and dystopian themes.

DataMe:DataHorse

HD Video / 05:29 min / 2023

Data Me is a series that explores post-digital ways of life of nature, man and machine in digital space. The video installation DataMe:DataHorse questions the happy virtual body that works tirelessly as a data horse for algorithms on the net to produce and consume a wealth of information - a digital-lab-loop system. The horse training method of 'Rollkur', euphemistically called hyperflexion, forces the unnatural position of the head on the chest onto the horse. Like hyperflexed dressage horses, we adopt a humiliating and forcing posture that simultaneously limits our perception of our environment. In compensation, the data horse not only gets free access but is rewarded by a higher feed ranking or a "Diamond Fan" badge, depending on productivity and conformity. Given the circumstances, the question arises as to the appropriate duration of continuing to persist in this situation.