ISSUE NO. 1 | DOOM
[ʊntɐgaŋ]
aka doom, ruin, decline, downfall, decay, demise, destruction, sinking
| destruction by mutation | decline by nuclear war | doom by Heidi
Klum |
| ruin by natural disaster | doom through iceberg lettuce | ruin by
world bankruptcy |
| doom by amok | fall through fun | nemesis by long beards | sinking
by ecstasy |
| decay by spa | destruction by mad cow desease | demise by world
hunger |
| destruction by spam | doom through cosmic surprise | doom as a new
beginning |
Artists, scientist and prophets of doom showed their
interpretations.
Between local and global, old and new media, the works revolved
around doom as a transition, doom as a new beginning.
DOOMSDAY EPISODE I 27.07. - 11.08.2012
Participating Artists: Gregory Chatonsky, Peter Feiler, Ivo Gretener,
Anais & Corentin Héraud, Jann Holstein, Anne-Sophie Kneer, Daniel
Kula, Louis McGuire, Anton Peitersen, Sucuk, Lars Teichmann, Die
Physiker
Installation view
DOOMSDAY EPISODE II 18.08. - 31.08.2012
Participating Artists: Theresa Bender, Peter Feiler, Kali Emerald
Fisher, Hussam Hilali & Ahmed El Gendy, Jann Holstein, Filippos
Kavakas, Martin Kavalar & Sucuk, René Karberg, Yorgia Karidi, Darr
Tah Lei, Anton Peitersen, Mike Ruiz, Daniel Swan
Contributing authors: Shane Anderson, Susanne Heinrich
Installation view
DØØM BØØM
by Abbra Kotlarczyk, Nov. 2012
Visions and projections of apocalyptic proportions are nothing new. Supposedly, the first record of apocalyptic literature developed in post-Exillic Jewish culture and was popularised with the birth of Christianity. The ultimate objective of this form of prophecy was to declare that, while the individual might perish amid the chaos on earth, the righteous person would be delivered through heavenly compensation.
The modern condition, as secular as it may be, is not exempt from a similar way of projecting humanity into the realm of the immortals. What would seem more fitting for this, the era of the individual? Whether driven by what we’ve since coined the human ego or as a desperate bid to escape the corrupt state of affairs that we’ve generated here on planet earth, the cultural infrastructure of doom is entirely fetishistic. And no time moreso than now as it is elevated to the brilliance of mediocracy and memetics.
For the first issue of team titanic’s twelve monthly instalments, a proposal was put forth encouraging artists, scientists and prophets to contribute artworks and ideas under the umbrella of Untergang (translation: downfall, decay, ruin, doom). And it read like this:
destruction by mutation | decline by nuclear war | doom by Heidi Klum | ruin by natural disaster | doom through iceberg lettuce | ruin by world bankruptcy | doom by amok | fall through fun | nemesis by long beards | sinking by ecstasy | decay by spa | destruction by mad cow desease | demise by world hunger | destruction by spam | doom through cosmic surprise | doom as a new beginning…
Where the old world saw prophetic judgement embodied by religious figureheads, the postmodern vernacular - littered as it is with overtones of catastrophe and pleas for rebirth – belongs to the realm of artists and scientists. German avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen’s controversial statements about the attacks on the World Trade Centre as being the “greatest work of art in the whole cosmos” [1] is a perfect example of the firm ideological convictions that carry the narrative of destruction as creation. To the decrees of African-American hip-hop litany, "Armageddon has been in effect; go get a late pass" [2] (Public Enemy) and Nas’s pre-Y2K album Nastradamus, which takes up a long tradition of quotation and pimpin’ prophecies.
The past few years have been witness to an increasing momentum for vast interpretations of a supposed End Time [3]. Whether due to awareness of economic decline and population crisis, the 2012 phenomenon which some entertain as a means for cosmic re-alignment or the rapid frequency of natural disasters, the realisation is that doom is already upon us.
One of the found translations of Untergang is Sunset. Despite the heady visual connotations one gets when thinking about decline and doom, the interpretations funded in the Team Titanic two-part exhibitions were remarkably buoyant and colourful. Like the double entendre of a Sunset, Untergang can be considered a double-edged sword. From the intently kitsch Paradiso’s of Jann Holstein’s landscape paintings to the colourful defacing of dark austerity in the work of Lars Teichman, is the oeuvre of this seemingly optimistic response parodic or a true reflection of the ways that doom is being absorbed into the everyday?
Now, near a month before the ominous 21.12.2012 hanging in the near
future like a candied pendulum, we have clothing brands cashing in on
another round of doomination, brought to you by the ironicisation of
cheap labour for western consumption. Whether romanticised as a lust
for ruination as in Rose Macaulay’s Pleasure of Ruins, or as a
contemporary fascination on the daily glitch mentality of digital
downloading, doom and demise appear to have become sweetened idioms
for daily existence…not least of all encompassing our consuming desire
for the final orgasm into oblivion.
[1]Christian Hänggi, Stockhausen at Ground Zero, Fillip #15, Fall
2011
[2]Public Enemy, lyrics from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us
Back, released 1998
[3]End Time is a time period described in the eschatological writings
in the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Baha'i and Islam)
and in doomsday scenarios in Hinduism, Buddhism and various other
non-Abrahamic religions. Various other religions also have
eschatological beliefs associated with turning and redemption.