Studer / van den Berg
filter: mixed double

Monica Studer and Christoph van den Berg are among Switzerland’s pioneers of media art. The three so-called filter works were created between 1996 and 1998. "These filters can be used to cool down from the search for meaning in the www and to move on aimlessly – like in a road movie," the artists explain.

The title of the third work, filter: mixed double, comes from the sports world and stands for two teams, each made up of one man and one woman, who compete against each other. Through the use of then-common search machines such as AltaVista and an algorithm, word juxtapositions were generated, each of which displayed two states of mind. Since the results are not predictable, the experience of the work becomes an emotional trip that is full of surprises.

In order for the search queries to function properly, the artists had to reprogram filter: mixed double to run through the interfaces of current search engines.

(Text: Sabine Himmelsbach)