The Berlin installation and conceptual artist Lena von Goedeke was selected this January by the prominent selection committee, consisting of the Artistic Director of Ars Electronica, Linz, Gerfried Stocker; Barbara Bergmann, Director of SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen; Prof. Oliver Kossack, Rector of the Dresden University of Fine Arts; Prof. Dr. Manuel Frey, Director of the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony; the Chancellor of the TUD, Jan Gerken, as well as those responsible for the TUD's Office for Academice Heritage, for the first residency in 2024 from 71 applications from all over the world.

Lena von Goedeke will be conducting artistic research at the TUD from May to October 2024 on the guiding theme "Data↔Worlds. Socio-technical and cultural syntheses of new realities". Von Goedeke was born in Duisburg in 1983 and now lives and works in Berlin and Spitsbergen. Her installations and objects have been shown at the Museum Marta Herford, the Museum August Macke Haus in Bonn, the Kunsthalle Münster and in numerous gallery exhibitions. Von Goedeke has already been awarded various prizes, including the Kallmann Prize of the Kallmann Museum Ismaning and the DEW21 Art Prize Dortmund as well as the annual scholarship of the Kunstfonds Foundation.

In her diverse works, von Goedeke deals intensively with the relationship between man and nature and his position in the cosmos.

The artist works closely with scientists from various disciplines. The results of this collaborative research find expression in critically reflected and at the same time sensually articulated works. In her detailed, fragile silhouettes, which refer to geographical land surveys and mapping methods, or in photographic and installative explorations of satellite images, she transforms complex, abstract data and research results into poetic and at the same time profound works.

Works by Lena von Goedeke

Her current artistic work focuses on Arctic research, in particular the technologies, potentials and challenges applied here. For several years now, von Goedeke has been collecting information and thoughts on the ethical and technological aspects of generating images of the world using satellites.

Based on the guiding theme of the second funding phase "Data↔Worlds", the artist would like to devote herself to the following subject area during her residency at Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden:

"For two years, I have been observing the development and application of Earth Observation satellites, as well as the people who develop and control them and process the collected data. The closer we zoom in, on our planet, the more what we see becomes blurred: a kind of coastline paradox, which means that more images, more information, do not lead to more knowledge or understanding - and certainly not to an understanding of a hyper-object such as the climate catastrophe. In dialog and exchange with the researchers of the TU Dresden and the network of the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden, I will deepen my understanding of the technical requirements and basics of earth surveying and data processing in order to develop aesthetic forms of expression and ideas for interfaces between our satellites and our self-image as earthlings. When and how do we have to put our feet in the water of the coast to understand it?"

With the positive assessment of the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden and the go-ahead for a second funding phase from April 2024, the success story of close and interdisciplinary collaboration between science, research and art can be continued. The fact that the establishment of an artist in residence, who accompanies the work in the Lab and at the TUD and examines it from a further discipline, is part of the basic equipment and thus also makes it a unique selling point of the innovative program, manifests the central role that art plays in these processes for future research.

More information on the Schaufler Residency@TU Dresden