Harro D. B. Schmidt [Germany] Crossing the Universe VI – rats and humans
multimedia installation
Dominican Monastery in Lublin, Złota 9, entrance from Jezuicka Street
In the installation by Harro D.B. Schmidt’s ‘Ratten und Menschen’ (Rats and humans), consisting of epidiascopes with flow vessels placed on them, various objects made of industrial waste rotate around their own axis in water. The projected images allow for different levels of interpretation: visitors can observe molecular structures as well as moving, ornamental geometry or space stations. Another projection shows a video in which an object, similar to a UFO, appears to float out of nowhere in the viewer’s field of vision. The script is accompanied by a soundtrack inspired by Andreas Eschbach’s novel ‘Exponential drift’, in which a voice from an extraterrestrial crew decides on the need to stop the expansion of humanity: “Rats and humans are the species with the highest aggressiveness and the highest reproduction rate on planet Earth. We have decided to contain them beyond Planet 6, beyond the orbit of Saturn’s moon Phoebe”.
A revised version of the ‘Ariane rocket’ and a boulder from Saturn’s moon Phoebe complete the scenario.
