Few people could make circuits into art quite like Walter Giers. He made them into visual objects, into aesthetic and design statements, into loud and even “annoying” performative constructions, into instruments. They aren’t simply utilitarian means to an end, but imaginative medium.
Electronic Beats takes a look into Walter Giers’ mind this week in a new film, featuring interviews with family members that reveal some of his way of seeing the world. Off to Schwäbisch Gmünd, we go:
The featured works here:
00:20 – Weisser Vulkan (1979)
1:08 – Erotischer Zyklus (1975)
1:14 – Hänge-Kugellautsprecher (1968)
2:14 – PE II (1992)
2:37 – Handbild/Hände (1971)
3:11 – Impertinent (1976)
3:40 – 54 Millionen Jahre (2004)
4:54 – Der Stammtisch
6:01 – Musik für 3 Sender (1977)
10:19 – Raoul Hausmann (1994)
You can find a rich gallery of additional works at his official site, for more visual inspiration – and a healthy dose of whimsy:
http://www.waltergiers.de/work.html
In many ways, art and technology go in cycles. And I imagine that Giers’ approach is more relevant than ever. Artists like Tristan Perich have taken a similar approach, returning to more basic circuits and elemental logic in favor of the “black box”/”white canvas” space of the general-purpose computer. And I imagine his free-form approach to visual aesthetics as well as the use of randomization and variation could inspire a new generation of artists in a variety of media.