Stephen Collins, Memory

The sound used here for the video work "Memory" was created by Stephen Collins in cooperation with Mark Pistel. The track "Memory" was recorded, mixed and mastered by Mark Pistel in the Room 5 Studios in San Francisco. Stephen Collins and Mark Pistel created the track based on the video work recorded by Gvoon and the sound contained therein in their individual view and interpretation of the entire topic. The sound in the original recording is based on the actual breathing sounds and the additionally recorded sound structures of the black Stasi rubber cell.

Inside: Arthur Schmidt

The video work “Memory” was first recorded by Gvoon Arthur Schmidt at a different location on Thursday night, March 30, 2023 at 10:30 p.m.

Yes, where should I start writing something about Stephen Collins? That's all that comes to mind. The best thing I can do is write how I met him. That was in the old Can studio in Weilerswist, at the time when Holger Czukay and I were setting up everything we wanted to take with us to the Can-Solo-Live performances in order to be able to perform our part, the Czukay/Gvoon:Magazine show. We then simply called it rehearsals. Anyway, one day I arrived in Weilerswist and Holger Czukay introduced me to Stephen Collins. That was it. Now standing was just there. Somehow Stephen was on the same wavelength as me, at least I felt that and took it for granted. We couldn't actually speak because he didn't understand a word of German and I didn't understand a word of English. This also had the advantage that we didn't distract ourselves with talking. Since, as it turned out, he was incredibly interested in everything, he immediately became an integral part of our planned show. He then came up with an interactive installation where he edited a live video while juggling two balls, which was then deformed and distorted in every form and made visible as a projection using image and sound. Later in Berlin in the Columbiahalle he sat alone on the stage with the two balls in front of the entire Can concerts and the 6000 people who had come, after an hour of waiting, slowly became impatient when it would finally start. And he sat alone on the huge stage and juggled the two balls around to create, as already mentioned, interactive sound and video. I don't think anyone in the audience even understood what he was doing because I think it was all too new and unknown for everyone else at that point. During the entire time we toured together, a kind of friendship somehow developed.

Later I met him in Chicago, he had a fairly large studio there in an industrial area and asked me if I would like to come to him with the whole Gvoon project. He had something planned for the poetry festival there. I immediately agreed, and a month later everyone was standing in an old workshop and setting up the entire installation. There was also Mark Spybey and others there. The fact that the Chicago police banned and broke up the entire event for a short time, only to release it again a short time later, is more of a funny aside from his time. When it was all over, I would have loved to stay there longer, but that wasn't possible, just because of all the effort involved in getting all the technical equipment back to Germany. In any case, it was a great event that he put together. Back in Cologne, I wrote to him a short time later asking whether he would like to come to Cologne to play a key role in the planned Gvoon concerts. He immediately agreed and arrived in Cologne a short time later with Eric Boxter in tow. His friend Eric later took over the entire video part of the concerts. Stephen himself, which was something very unusual, took on a central role and appeared wearing a full-body tracking suit. I had received it from Olaf Schirm of the Fourth Kind a short time before. This was more than ahead of its time at the time. In any case, Stephen controlled a virtual character named Bobok and a number of sound things for me throughout the tracking. At that point there were already a lot of people who went to the concerts in the Hamburg Music Hall, the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany and others. I remember one scene very clearly. One day Stephen stood in front of all of us in the Cologne studio and was completely black. He had rubbed black shoe polish all over his face! Or one of them saw a completely black figure in a body tracking frame with a face tracker on his head. The black shoe polish was everywhere,,, Stephen Collins now lives in San Francisco and runs his own radio station with various collaborations.

About a month ago I wrote to Stephen to ask him if he could use his understanding to do something about the current project with the black Stasi rubber cell, as it is very important to me alone. He then simply agreed and wrote to me about it. At the very end of the letter it said "Meepmeep ~ Idiot #1", because then I felt even more,,,

The sound for the video work "Memory" here, which was created by Stephen, was created very easily. To do this, he went to a very impressive recording studio owned by his friends Mark Pistel in San Francisco to do everything the way he and Mark imagined it. I can't really put into words what came of it. You captured what I mean very well and made it audible. He also sent me a second soundtrack, a very experimental electronic sound that I will definitely like to use in my work here.

More information about Stephen Collins' work can be found at: https://tastee.media/ and Mark Pistel's work can be found at: https://www.markpistel.com/studio

In reality, this black rubber cell (arrest cell, tranquilizing holding room) of the Stasi, designed and built by people, exists very far down as a realr room 2 at the lowest point in the basement of the north wing (cell wing) of the former central detention center (UHA) of the Ministry of State Security (Stasi) of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), today's memorial in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen.

In the "Inside" project, the room, the black rubber cell, symbolizes all the other spaces in the world that have been turned into places, into which people are brought into an exceptional situation that cannot be put into words, controlled by unscrupulous others and helplessly delivered.

All works on the project "Inside" by Gvoon (Global Visions of other Natures) with the black rubber cell of the Stasi, which Arthur Schmidt transferred to another location, completely identical to the original, and massively in the actively operated state of 1981, the year of meticulously rebuilt after one's own imprisonment is part of coming to terms with one's own experiences and dealing with the empathy of others.

Inside is in no way determined by others and is only determined by the inside of the person who has been brought here.

Visit Youtube directly for more and other video works created or take a look at all the works createdt so far for the "Inside" project here,,,

The “Inside” project is supervised by GMO - The Label.