Interferences~ v0.1

Manuel Knapp´s animations - or, more precisely, simulations - have only an apparent and initially "constructive" intent: the simplest basic geometric forms (straight line, rectangle, cube) are animated through friction and gravity. The virtual camera´s position is programmed in the virtual space in line with the movement of the forms. The visual potential of simulation, however, first gains dimension at the subsequent, virtual level: the basic geometric figures generated are "covered" with textures (bitmaps). The foiling and penetration now become visual events, which, especially with regard to their programmed speed, lie "outside" of any conformity to natural laws of physical space, and instead, occur within the "actuality" of the animated image; the simulation. With Knapp, this calculatedunpredictability formulates an "embodiment" and three-dimensionality of pure visibility based on a virtual "physics of simulation". Knapp mainly invokes disturbances and program errors, aspects of the machine´s dysfunction, so to speak, to design a three-dimensionality. Here, reference is to the animation of white lines on a white background as a starting point of the simulation. Contrary to all expectations, this nonetheless arrives at a legible aesthetic. The program, oriented on visualization, does not "accept" the anticipated invisibility of the programmed graphical elements; rather it "must" visualize. The absence of visibility would consequently be the program´s "off" - its case of impossibility.

(David Komary)

Translation: Lisa Rosenblatt