PLANET MIDDLESEX | Stefan Mildenberger

2018, Split-Screen Video-Installation: 104 Minuten
Performance / 378 Scan-Bilder, HD, Farbe, 16:9, Stereo,

PLANET MIDDLESEX, 2018, Video-Installation, Performance / 378 Scan-Bilder, Texte, DIN A4
(Flachbildschirm, Glasplatte, mobiler Scanner, Film: Cinderella, Branagh, 2015)

Die Video-Installation PLANET MIDDLESEX ist inspiriert durch die Begriffe Geschlechtsidentität (engl.: gender) und „biologisches“ Geschlecht (engl.: sex). In einer Zukunfts-Vision, die sich im Jahr 2111 abspielt, wird ein Szenario kreiert, das die Voraussetzung schafft den Mainstream nicht hetero-normativ bleiben zu lassen.
Als Grundlage für die Video- und Soundarbeit von PLANET MIDDLESEX wurde der Film „Cinderella“ verwendet, der 2015 von Disney produziert wurde. Das Video PLANET MIDDLESEX zeigt die Ergebnisse, die beim sequentiellen Einscannen des Filmes „Cinderella“ von Kenneth Branagh (2015) mit einem mobilen Hand-Scanner entstanden sind, während dieser auf einem Flatscreen abgespielt wurde und das Video PLANET MIDDLESEX PERFORMANCE die zugehörige Scan-Performance.
Für den Versuchsaufbau der Scan-Performance wurde ein Flatscreen um 90° gekippt und eine Glasplatte auf dessen Bildfläche platziert. Während der Film „Cinderella“ auf dem Flatscreen lief, wurde mit einem Hand-Scanner dessen Bildfläche abgescannt. Der Scan-Vorgang wurde ununterbrochen für die gesamte Dauer des Filmes „Cinderella“ von ungefähr 105 Minuten wiederholt, bis der ganze Film eingescannt war.
Die durch diese Scan-Performance entstandenen 378 Einzelbilder werden nacheinander, in dem Video PLANET MIDDLESEX als Band von rechts nach links laufend animiert, filmisch dargestellt. Dies dauert ebenfalls ungefähr 105 Minuten, so dass das Video PLANET MIDDLESEX die gleiche Länge hat wie der eingescannte Film „Cinderella“ von Branagh.
Der Original-Sound des Filmes „Cinderella“ wurde mit einem Audio-Programm zerstückelt, bearbeitet und zusammen mit Tonaufnahmen von gesprochenen Texten von 12 Performern, in 12 verschiedenen Sprachen, zu einer hörspielartigen Sound-Collage zusammengesetzt.

PLANET MIDDLESEX

2018, Split-Screen Video-Installation: 104 Minutes

Performance / 378 Scan-Bilder, HD, Farbe, 16:9, Stereo

The science-fiction video installation PLANET MIDDLESEX by Stefan Mildenberger is inspired by the terms gender identity and „sex“. In a vision for the future, which takes place in the year 2111, a scenario is created that creates the prerequisite for not allowing the mainstream to become hetero-normative.

In the year 2111: Due to evolution only 10% of all newborns were born with male genitals (cis-man) and only 20% of the newborns were born with female genitals (cis-woman). The rest of the newborn babies were born as a intersexual person. The intersexual people can fertilize themselves, so there are actually no cis-men or cis-women more needed to reproduce. If an intersexual person fertilizes itself, the newborn will also be an intersexaual person and no cis-men or cis-women will be born. Only if a cis-person is involved in the reproductive act there is a 30% chance that a cis-baby is going to be born.
What will happen to the cis-men and cis-women? Will they disappear? What are thier roles in society and can evolution be changed?
At the same time during a three-month excavation at the Herm and Prehistory Department of Herm-University Frankfurt a USB-flash-drive, containing heavily damaged footage, was found near a former film archive in Potsdam. What kind of movie is it?

As the basis for the video and sound work of PLANET MIDDLESEX, Stefan Mildenberger uses the film „Cinderella“ that was produced by Disney from 2015. The video installation shows the results of sequential scanning the film „Cinderella“ with a mobile handheld scanner from a screen.

The video-installation PLANET MIDDLESEX shows in one video the results that appeared by sequentially scanning the movie „Cinderella“ from Kenneth Branagh (2015) with a hand-held mobile scanner, while it was played on a flatscreen-display and in a second video the corresponding scan-performance.
For the experimental setup, a glass plate is put on the screen of a 90° tilted flatscreen. While the film „Cinderella“ was playing on the flatscreen it was scanned with a mobile hand-held scanner. The scan-process was repeated continuously for the full duration of the movie „Cinderella“ of approximately 104 minutes until the entire film was scanned. Through this scan-performance 378 pictures were created. In one video of PLANET MIDDLESEX these pictures are turned to film and are animated as a band moving from right to the left. This took also approximately 104 minutes so that the video has the same length as the movie „Cinderella“ from Branagh.

The original sound of the film „Cinderella“ was fragmented with an audio program, processed and combined with sound recordings of spoken texts from 12 performers in 12 different languages, to a radio-like sound collage. The recorded texts are based on the above summary.
A part of the inspiring basis for the text collage was the book „1-0-1 (one ò one) intersex – the two-gender system as a human rights violation“, published by the New Society for Fine Arts in Berlin in 2005.

In his artistic work Stefan Mildenberger deals with the reformulation and abstraction of information from mass media content and its political, cultural and social impacts. By using technical-conceptual processes and the help of coincidence he deconstructs the actual convention and creates an abstraction.
Performer:

Simon Schultz: German
Barakat I.: Arabic
H.P. : Swedish
Martin Lindemann: Russian
Joey Friedrich: Portuguese
Lisa Jackson: English
Paolo Mesén: Spanish
KarMan: Italian
Wonek Lee: Korean
Arvild J. Baud: Swiss German
Binbin Zhang: Mandarin / Translation: Xinyi Li
Myriam Eyrolles: French
Stefan Mildenberger: Singing, Komposition and Realisation