The_World_seen_through_ the_algorithmic_Eyes_ of_Google_Earth, 2023

For his third solo exhibition at Galerie Judith Andreae, media artist Achim Mohné transforms the gallery's real as well as virtual space into a physically experienceable 3D artwork. Since 2018, Mohné has been working with three-dimensional models of urban structures based on data from virtual globes such as Google Earth. A specially developed, analogue-digital process in which the artist creates images of the selected location from all sides using virtual "camera drones" in the Google Earth app rather than in real space, and processes them further via photogrammetry, serves as the basis for a site-specific wall work that "mirrors" the direct surroundings of the outdoor space into the gallery spaces. The virtual model of the building, realised as a wall and video work and visualised from all sides, appears distorted, the forms simplified, glitches and disturbances create alienation, caused by the algorithms as well as the artistic intervention in the software. The juxtaposition of the real place with its virtual counterpart reveals an ambivalent relationship between the recorded space and its image. In these projects, the artist addresses the new three-dimensional media as a continuation of landscape painting and architectural photography. Just as these have influenced our perception of nature up to now, the new virtual three-dimensional simulations as a new form of documentary images will also shape our relationship to the world.