Human beings' loss of power and control due to machines and the use of
technologies for insuring a so-called "internal security" are themes
of the work by Olaf Arndt and Rob Moonen. In this context they are
interested in examining how research, industry and the state join
forces in a joint mission to civilize and humanize.
The installation "Camera Silens" was created in 1994 and refers to a
research project at the university clinic in Hamburg Eppendorf, which
was suspended in 1973 due to outraged public discussions.
The Czech psychiatrist Jan Gross and his colleague Peter Kempe had set
up a "Camera Silens" (CS) in a room of the faculty building three
years earlier, in order to conduct investigations of the effect of
"social isolation and sensory deprivation" (SI/SD) on healthy test
persons and patients at the psychiatric hospital under conditions of
total separation from natural surroundings.

This "Camera Silens", which could essentially be described as an
anechoic and nearly soundproof chamber, was copied by the artists Olaf
Arndt and Rob Moonen to refer to experiments involving the complete
control of the human consciousness.

The reference to the theme of sensory deprivation allows connections
to be made to the solitary confinement of the RAF prisoners of the 70s
and 80s, as well as to various methods of brainwashing. It indicates
the possibility of regarding the human brain as a hard disk in a
metaphorical sense, which can be deleted and re-written.

With support from the Mondriaan Stichting, NL

Olaf Arndt
born 1961 in Hannover (D), lives and works in Berlin (D)
First worked in the area of performance, developed productions
displaying the thematic field human-machine-society in explosive,
sometimes aggressive constellations. In 1989 he founded the machine
performance group BBM (Beobachter der Bediener von Maschinen –
"Observers of the Operators of Machines").
http://bbm-ww.de

Rob Moonen
born 1958 in Schaesberg, Netherlands, lives and works in Tilburg (NL)
Rob Moonen develops context-related installations with different
media. His works are designed as a critical commentary on a topical
situation.
http://www.robmoonen.nl/