Perry Hoberman: Faraday's Garden

The ZKM | Media Museum presents interactive media art classic in an updated version: A mixed media environment, an interactive, kinetic sculpture (1990–1994) by Perry Hoberman.

In the installation »Faraday’s Garden«, by American artist Perry Hoberman, visitors find themselves amidst a collection of household appliances, office assistants, electronic tools, projectors, radios and other such recording devices and domestic electronics objects. Pressure-sensitive sensors are installed under the installation's carpet, which control the devices' power supply.

Once entering the installation, the machines spring to life, and greet each visitor in this unusual parcours with the corresponding noise and mechanical movements. The longer visitors linger in »Faraday's Garden«, the greater the volume of noise and power supply, such that the apparent independent life of the thing-world increases. Whereas the visitors trigger the electronics, the purposeful and intended method of control and steering finally escapes human influence.

For his work of art, Perry Hoberman collected the objects from department stores, from household trash and from flea markets. The entire history of electronics for private usage in the twentieth century can be read by way of these ready-mades, whereby entering the installation also represents a journey through time.