Tobias Becker

2024, digital photo collages (35-, 120-, slide-, archive-, A.I.-photographs; book pages), pigment inkjet-prints, each 29x42cm, series of 25

A fictive discoverer goes on a journey of discovery. What he is confronted with is a world in between reality, artificiality and irreality. On his way, he discovers scenes which become more and more unrealistic. The photo series “The worlds we see” exemplarily shows how our perception increasingly deviates from the physical, real world. 

2020/23, photo installation, iPad-light and FaceID-Infraredrays on light sensitive rc-paper; 5 photograms in the installation, each 30x40cm

Viola Jones has many faces. But she’s not human. It is the name for the most famous face recognition-software used by smartphones, image platforms or video games. The program detects the faces by trying to place geometrical forms onto the persons face, almost like an automated Tetris-game. With the help of an iPad and it’s sensors, five faces were scanned. In the moment of scanning, light sensitive photo paper was held onto the tablet’s screen, therefore recording the hidden process into one single image made visible for the human eye. Here, virtual forms, only visible in the computer-world become visible - A shift of views, from the sight of artificial intelligence.

2022, video collage of Super8-, VHS-, DVD-, HD-Footage, 10 min

2021, model of the rollercoaster "Space Mountain" (Disneyland) made of polystyrene, plaster, light sensitive photo emulsion, 45 x 35 cm

When the first Disneyland theme-park opened in 1955, the area "Tomorrowland" conveyed an image of a bright future by showcasing new technologies and visions of tomorrow. The indoor rollercoaster "Space Mounatin", for example, simulated a flight through the galaxy with a rocketship. After the first moonlanding in 1969, the beginning of social unrest, the climate crisis and many other problems of today's society, the utopian future shown by Disney now seems outdated and overwritten by pessimism towards the tomorrow. However, up to the present day, the still existing "Space Mountain" continues to tell a story of optimistic adventure, an alternative future in the future, a SciFi utopia of the past. For the video, a paper model of the rollercoaster "Space Mountain", as a symbol of the future envisioned by Disney, was built and coated with light-sensitive photo emulsion. The model was then filmed in a dark room by a camera with a spotlight. The spotlight exposed the emulsion, which then slowly turned black, until the model had vanished in the black background. This process was filmed with different cameras, each standing for a specific century. The footage was later mixed with an on-ride video of the rollercoaster itself, but moving backwards.

2024, HD-video collage, 23 min

The work photographically reenacts the life of adventurer John Franklin. Franklin is said to have perceived his surroundings very slowly and thus in a very detailed way. For his whole life, he was searching the Northwest Passage, an important trading route through the Arctic Ocean. His most famous expedition, the Franklin expedition, ended catastrophically. Only the remnants of his ship were found. Until today, the events are not fully reconstructed.

Through different historical techniques of photography, from the beginnings until today — from daguerrotypes to AI images, the slideshow visualises his journey until the very end, also suggesting what could have happened on his last expedition.

The viewer sets sail with Franklin. In the course of his life, the world seems to become faster and faster, affecting Franklin’s way of seeing. His desire to discover ends in a feeling of disorientation. The forced perception becomes too fast for Franklin’s demand to carefully perceive the world in every detail. - Did we become blind through our own velocity?

2020/2023, mixed media (photogram, heavy duty aluminium shelves, Super8-projectors, wires), 800 x 200cm

A tug of war is being projected onto a long photogram of a rope by six Super8-projectors. Each projection shows a pair of hands holding and pulling a rope. But there is no pus- hing forward, no actual movement of the rope. The real fight is being held by the projectors themselves. It is a fight of endurance. Which film celluloid can withstand the forces the most, which light bulb has the longest life? Each time an

error occurs to one of the projec- tors it will be turned off. As time passes, the game loses more and more protagonists. Which projec- tor will be the winner at the end of the exhibition? And will it last until the end? Here, the exhibition room turns into an arena, the spectators will be the visitors of the museum. The duration of the game is prede- termined by the exhibition length. - On a meta level, a fight to the fi- nish visualizes social aspects of interactions in between groups, negotiations of attitudes and face to face communication.

2018/22; iPhone-light on light sensitive rc-paper; series of 4

Social Media platforms like instagram provide a nearly endless amount of photographs. Daily, millions of photos are being uploaded. As an attempt of compression, light sensitive paper was held on a smartphone screen in the moment of scrolling through an instagram profile. This act was repeated with several instagram accounts. Each sheet of paper therefore summarizes all photos on one account. No single image can be detected anymore, only depicting fragments of the profile images. In the exhibition room, the photograms exhibited were analogously enlarged to a height of about two meters. 

© image courtesy: Unit 1-Gallery

 2021; TV-light on light sensitive baryte paper, tube tv’s

dying light catches the last rays of old cathode ray tv’s in the moment of turning them off. In the exact moment of pressing the off-button, a sheet of light sensitive baryte paper is being held on the screen of the TV. Thus, the collapsing of the image is preserved on the light sensitive paper.

2022; Super8-film transferred to hd-video; 2.39 min

In Flint, an old peasant woman kindles a bonfire in the evening. The fire is repeatedly outshined by a spotlight. The artificial light, which is activated by an infrared motion detector, is impaired by the heat of the fire. In the background you can see the facade of an old farm building. The motion-activated spotlight was recently installed by the peasant woman‘s son, who is now the second-generation to work the farm. His newly-installed lighting disrupts the accustomed habit of the protagonist who tries to find her place amongst decay, isolation, as well as innovation.

2021; disco-ball light on light sensitive rc-paper

A 40 meter long sheet of light-sensitive photographic paper was hung up against the walls of a room, which functioned as a temporary darkroom. Afterwards, the paper was exposed by the light rays of a disco ball, still hanging in the middle of the room. The ball illuminated for the exact same time as the playing time of the song „from here to eternity“ by Giorgio Moroder, who is regarded as a joint founder of the disco genre and as a forerunner of todays electronic music. About 40 participants were invited for the time of the exposure. For about seven minutes, the disco light shone along the patrty scene and exposed the fleeting movements of light and shadow on the light sensitive paper. 

2019 (HD/Super8-Video, 3.20 min / 4 photo collages of video film stills, cyanotypes, acrylic glass tape / werewolf mask)

ghost_train(s)_on_ride visually analyses the use of the term "ghost train" in Great Britain. On the one hand, the word describes empty trains from the National Railway company running on no longer required tracks to prevent their closure by the government, on the other hand it is the name of the oldest dark ride in the world still operating in the amusement park Blackpool Pleasure Beach. The footage from the video is a mixture of Super8-film and digital HD-video. In addition to the video, photo collages of film stills and cyanotypes, taken on while riding the trains, are presented on the gallery walls.

2018; smartphonelight on light sensitive rc-paper; series of 9

Marshall Mc Luhan already wrote in 1964 „We live in a difficult world where we are witnesses of a fatal clash of highly sophisticated technologies. We approach new technology with the physical and sensual reflexes which we were conditioned by the old ones.“ Today, selfies are self-portraits made by ones own hand and a smartphone. In this work, the new digital world encounters the old analog time. In a darkroom, different people take selfies with their phones. In the moment of pressing the shutter, a light sensitive sheet of photographic paper is being held in front of the smartphone display. The flash and the light of the screen expose the paper. Because the phone was held in the hand at this point, the selfie and the holding gesture both are being captured. Here, the smartphone takes in the place of an old photo enlarger. This work visualises a technological evanescence. It is a try of pairing a new habit with old technology. 

2023, mixed media (Google Earth screenshots on plexiglass and tracing paper, metal rods), 5 pieces, each 29,7 x 42 cm

In times of increasing tension and international armament, China converted reefs in the South China Sea into military facilities. The works each consist of two Google Earth screenshots, showing the reef before and after its transformation. When looking from the front, the reefs are shown in its current state. When looking from the side, the original reefs, before the conversion, are shown. Thus, the works exemplarily reveal a political terraforming of landscapes, at the cost of nature and its ecosystems.

2021, computer monitor-light on light sensitive rc-paper, series of 10, each 30x40cm

Screen savers are a left-over rudiment of previous times when old, cube shaped cathode ray monitors were still in use. In spite of their name, they are no longer saving energy on modern screens. While many computers are still set to use an animated screensaver after the computer has been idle for a period of time, this now only serves the aesthethic purpose of nostalgia. In days of activism against climate change, the fact that our monitors stay on and play animations when we’re away from them, uselessly consuming energy, is a contradictory task, that only remains an old habit. The work "fridays for futre" exemplarily makes visible the power consumption of personal electronics in a state of absence of a user.

2022, Super8-film, moving through two Super8-projectors in loop

A moving image of a person walking, as a symbol of progress, is shown on the right wall. After searching its way through the Super8-projector, the celluloid of this film is being guided through another Super8-projector, standing directly opposite the first one. This projector plays the film in reverse, resulting in the person moving backwards on the left wall. The two ends of the celluloid are glued together, forming an endless loop of back and forth.

2019; mixed media (laserbeams on analog rc-paper, laser light, speaker, music recordings)

A static peak symbolically illustrates bygone experiences. A photogram shows light traces of a laser light, as seen in clubs and discos. Both laser light and photo paper were taken into a darkroom, where the light sensitive paper was exposed to the laser light, resulting in the moving patterns of the laser being fixed on the paper. In the exhibition room, now and then, short and dull music recordings from already past nights come out of a speaker. The speaker stands right next to the laser light, which gets activated by the sound, projecting its light on the photogram on the wall one more time. Both light patterns, the fixed one on the photogram and the actual light beams in the exhibition room unite to a single pattern. Traces of the past and now blend into each other, align, until the music and the sound-activated laser light turn off again. A static peak patterns on the way a human brain recalls its memories. Here, music and light function as trigger. 

2018/2020; Super8- installation

A Super8- projector projects a loading cycle on the wall of an exhibition room. The cycle, which is the original Youtube loading symbol, was transferred from the digital onto Super8-film. The end and the beginning of the film material were cut together and form a single loop. Through playing the film, the impression of an endless loading process emerges. Running along the ceiling atop the projector on the floor, the film material makes the loop physically experienceable, asking the question of what happens with obsolete culture making devices.

2018; mixed-media installation (table, super 8-projector, computer)

A Super8-projector screens a video onto the display of a computer. The computer runs a video player on its desktop, not playing, but only showing a black pause screen. The Super8-projection takes in the place of the digital video, by projecting the analog film in the window of the media player, conveying the impression that the computer itself would run the video. The two technologies merge together, visualising and contrasting the acts of collecting memories over the last centuries. 

2017; smartphonelight on light sensitive rc-paper; series of 7

Days of Absence describes the never-ending receiving of text messages during a week of smartphone absence. Every day, the phone was placed screen down-facing on a sheet of light sensitive photographic paper. Every time the phone received a message, the lock screen lit up for a couple of seconds, exposing light on the paper. The more messages the phone received, the more light fell on the light sensitive paper, resulting in a longer exposure time. After 24 hours, the exposed paper was replaced by a new one. This process was repeated for seven days. The resulting seven photograms, each represent a varying number of incoming text messages, depending on the quantity of the day. The darker the paper has become, the more messages were received that day.