INTERVIEW

In conversation with … Olaf Schirm, Science Artist
On 27 June 2023, the large solo exhibition “Main Works” by Olaf Schirm will begin in Berlin. The artist is interested in the interface between man and machine, the demarcation between mind and artificial intelligence. In his art, he uses scientific findings and phenomena to tell new stories. In an interview with Barbara Hoppe, he explains what moves and inspires him.

Feuilletonscout: Your way into art was through electronic music (aka Symboter) in the 70s. How did you then take the step to art? And when?
Olaf Schirm: It was logical for me as a musician with self built electronic instruments to work first in recording studios as an assistant. Later I opened my own studio for electronic music, got an offer from a TV station to work there in the sound and video departments and that led to video graphics and computer graphics for TV programs and for advertising. I started to develop and place my artistic visual ideas as an art director during that time.  Later, I was able to develop that further within my own companies and set some artistic milestones. That was around the period 1983 to 2014, since then I dedicate myself exclusively and without compromise to my artistic projects, notably without commercial ventures.

Feuilletonscout: At the same time, you founded and successfully managed several companies.
Olaf Schirm: Yes, I founded and directed several companies, limited liability companies and a stock corporation. The business areas of our work were 3D real-time animation, human motion capture, license trading and research robotics.

Feuilletonscout: Did the experiences and developments in your companies had an influence on your art and your understanding of art? Or the other way around? Or did you separate the two engagements completely?
Olaf Schirm: In my companies, I deliberately chose topics that I developed as an artist in terms of experimental projects – that’s where the companies originated from – projects which became so big that they could only be realized by a team of up to 40 specialists, for example my agency for virtual show hosts. In the technology area, I learned a lot about developing marketable products, which helps me today to create complex artistic installations that are also maintainable over decades and well documented.

“I am not running out of topics”

Feuilletonscout: You call your art science art. What do you understand by it? What interests and fascinates you about it?
Olaf Schirm: I am interested in scientific topics, the structure of everything, the quantum level, as well as the great connections of space and time, the observation of how both are connected and how we as humans and nature are embedded in them. The potentials of tension from the question of “how long is NOW?” to the question of the potentiality of non-condensed state forms “what is CHANCE?”, of errors in a system and in a detail, of conflicts between man and machine, software and consciousness. I certainly do not run out of topics, all emerge from a deep interest in scientific inquiry. However, the explanation of my findings does not take place in the domain of science, but with the means of art, which in my opinion is the better “language” for this.

Feuilletonscout: You express your ideas primarily in sculptural installations that work with light, sound, robotics and kinetics. A somewhat provocative question: How do you explain to people with less affinity for art what is the art in your works?
Olaf Schirm: An artist works with materials to express his art. Many artists do it with paint on a canvas, I develop my installations with light, sound, kinetics, because the paint and canvas I can best express myself with is technology. I work with this material for nearly 50 years and know what I did achieve and can realize with it now and in future.

Feuilletonscout: Artificial intelligence is gaining more and more influence in all areas of life and also in art. You’ve been following the developments from the beginning and now you’re using it in your art. How do you do it?
Olaf Schirm: Since my youth I have followed the development from simple software agents to neural networks and to today’s machine learning and the AIs that are now popping up everywhere and I have also participated wherever I was able to. Artistically, I have been using them for about the last 10 years, in robot installations and especially light installations. For the past two years I have been using AI to create digital image works, they are ultimately printed and signed as unique analog artworks.

“I leave nothing to chance”

Feuilletonscout: You call the AI images you create scenographics. Why did you chose this designation?
Olaf Schirm: The big overall term for my art is conceptual art. I realize my artistic concepts through science art, and I produce my digital works with artificial intelligences. Each of my works is based on a unique concept in terms of content and design. Working on digital artworks is for me a step by step development of a scene that I want to realize. I leave nothing to chance, although I may allow chance conceptually. So it’s like instructing a group of actors, stagehands and lighting technicians to produce a specific scene (hence scenography) in which my story can be told. The AI makes a design draft out of my prompted instructions, which I improve and refine in numerous iterations, like with stagehands.

Feuilletonscout: What distinguishes your AI scenographic works from the flood of AI images you find everywhere at the moment?
Olaf Schirm: It’s like photographs, what distinguishes an artistically valuable photograph from a random snapshot made for memory? This is difficult for me to answer as an artist, but a simplified explanation is to look at a series of works. In order to create a series which makes sense and has an impact, the artist needs a concept. Valuing the concept and ultimately the oeuvre of an artist creates market appreciation beyond one single hit by chance. My AI paintings are not random, nice looking, pleasing products, but works developed over weeks and months with a  profound content idea.

“Errors in processes and procedures are of particular interest to me”

Feuilletonscout: Science Art is an art form that inevitably keeps changing, and sometimes faster than other art forms, because science is always coming up with something new. How do you deal with this? Is there one area that you remain fundamentally and irrevocably true to, even as you evaluate new possibilities?
The topics in science remain similar, but the methods are constantly evolving. I observe both and the interplay between research and application. As soon as I find a break, an anomaly or, say, a synergy in it, I like to use this as an occasion for new thoughts and concepts. “Errors” in processes and procedures are of particular interest to me, as they have great potential for artistic responses.

Feuilletonscout: You call yourself a “specialist in nothing.” Why?
Olaf Schirm: I have noticed from the tasks I set myself that I can familiarize myself sufficiently deeply with any field in a plausible amount of time to be able to function there, not as the best, but as a specialist. Since I am constantly familiarizing myself with new subjects or areas of expertise, I cannot be a specialist for everything, but I can certainly be a specialist for nothing, the potential from which everything is made.

“Berlin is a project space”

Feuilletonscout: You were born in Berlin, grew up in Munich, lived in Los Angeles and Cologne and returned to Berlin in 2006. Why? Does the city inspire you for your art?
Olaf Schirm: Berlin has always been my home, even though I have lived and worked in other cities and in the USA. From there I have always traveled back to Berlin because I feel comfortable here. Like myself, Berlin is a project space where there is still a lot to do. The tasks are big and the ground is there. Here it’s all about one’s own commitment to find, pave and walk one’s path.

Feuilletonscout: Would you say that Berlin has the prerequisites for a science art scene?
Olaf Schirm: In the city there are science and science businesses in many locations, and art and art businesses in even more locations, it’s just that the two sectors seemingly ignore each other, although it would be very useful, especially for science and modern businesses. The conditions and interested people are here, what is missing are the reunion places, the organizations and the public funding.

“When you encounter my works, you go on a journey of discovery”

Feuilletonscout: What do you recommend to people who are shy to approach your art with its scientific background?
Olaf Schirm: The scientific background is the second level of my works. On the first level, my artworks should please the audience and convince sculpturally, with their kinetics, with their immanent aesthetics. To discover and experience the second level, to get the reward of close examination of the content of the work, one should slow down, give oneself time, pause, observe, usually for a few minutes or longer. The chance for a lasting experience in addition to the certainly pleasing enjoyment of the artwork is in your own hands.

Feuilletonscout: Is there anything you would like viewers to take away with them?
Olaf Schirm: Don’t be lured by size or multiplicity, don’t be lured by the fact that someone is practicing a craft you don’t know or understand. Don’t be blinded by meticulousness or manic perseverance. The magic of procedures, technique, and software comes from our ignorance as viewers, as in a magic trick. But that does not make art. Art arises from a skill that uses craftsmanship as a matter to formulate an artistic statement. When you encounter my works, you should go on a journey of discovery. Pay attention to format, material, sculpture, processes, observe and try to formulate what you see, hear, perceive. Reflect what you perceive on yourself and the environment. Use your perception of the artwork to transcend its boundaries and experience even more, thereby enjoy my art on all levels.

Thank you for the interview, Olaf Schirm!