Artvideoinstallation as Memorial to prevent Teenagers and Kids from Running Amok

Short Description of the Topic: 

In general we deal with violence between kids and teenagers.

The aggression and readiness to use violence mirrors the society, in which kids are raised, grow up, and in which eventually their lives are shaped.

Preperation of the Videoinstallation:

In advance, two schools - one in USA and one in Germany - are selected to be part of a project. Schools are selected on a targeted basis, in which killing sprees have occured in the past. At these schools, students of all grades are asked to write down their wishes, suggestions, fears, and thoughts on one piece of A5 paper, which are specifically addressed against the grown-ups. These notes should be focussing on the past - which inherits the problems and mistakes - as well as the future - which means chances to improve. The sentences should be written anonymously. They should be handwritten and authentic and are supposed to pursue the goal, to shake up adults and point out possibile ways to work against killing sprees in advance, which might already be planned.

The students of the participating schools are also asked to record their sentences per telephone and send us those as sound files. The intention is to surprise the visitors of the video installation by pausing the videos for short moments, in order to let darkness take over, while only the voices of the children resound, which read out the sentences, which are placed on the floor. This could remind of a moments of silence of other tragic events.

Description and Meaning of the Videoinstallation

Visitors are led into a room, which visually reminds of a kind of tunnel, due to it`s rounded edges. Sequences from the experimental feature Koma Kid are projected on the ceiling, floors, and walls of the room. These clips are all different, which means that never the same clip is appearing more than once at the same time on a different wall. Furthermore, the floor consists of the messages, these children have written down on the scraps of paper. So visitors are forced to confront themselves with the dreams and wishes of their children, walk towards them, and to therefore portray a more detailled picture, of what has to change, stop, or be reinforced. The media overload, which the younger generation continuously is faced with, is imitated by means of utilizing the notes, videos, and inserted children`s voices. Influenced and manipulated by the media, children and teenagers nowadays are led from reality into a virtual world, in which they are overstrained and lose their safety, which consists of true virtues, clear perspectives, emotions and personal communication. In a world that is constructed by social networks and virtual communication, it always gets harder to find the own true personality, to interpret it, identify it correctly, and most important to work on it.