“Daniel Franke (1982) works as an artist, designer and music video director in Berlin. His works challenge the restrictions of conventional spatial frameworks and – concepts: digital simulations should no longer be limited to an on-screen -display; instead the digital might be imagined as transferable into real space and thus extend perceptions of “the real”. Ultimately digital spaces should leave the realm of the virtual and enter the tactile.”

Franke’s work is a bridge between digital experience and the natural experience. His images from nature mimic the sense of vague specificity one feels while surfing the web,  the conflicting senses of dislocation and belonging. His cityscapes of Berlin continue the experience.  Evoking the overwhelming atmosphere of being in the city with the subtle yet overwhelming experience of being in the internet. (that’s some Heideggerian shit right there)

It’s like being at a party surrounded by people who know and love you and asking yourself “What the fuck am I doing here? I don’t recognize anyone.”

‘Such a beautiful town, every time I come here I’m awe-inspired. Where are we again?”

Can someone tell me which way Third street is?

Where is your shopping centre?

Franke also creates what he calls “Sound Sculpture.”
Using the recorded motions of a dancer filmed with Kinect technology, Franke animates a traditionally static medium. We are able to see the last moments of every movement as it goes in to the next.  Franke manages to achieve what Italian Futurist Umberto Boccioni was going for nearly a century ago with his piece “Unique Forms of Continuity in Space” (1913).  Franke brings Boccioni’s goal of portraying a “synthetic continuity” and unending movement within space to the digital spectrum.

unnamed soundsculpture from Daniel Franke on Vimeo.

One Minute Soundsculpture from Daniel Franke on Vimeo.

Franke’s video work acts as a way to bring the digital experience into the real. I feel like I’m watching a gif manifest itself within the gallery space.  The interesting aspect of works like this is their existence as video art. If Franke’s goal is to bring the digital to the real, then it’s incredibly meta for viewers to go and watch his work online. It almost feels like watching it as a video rebuilds the fourth wall between the viewer and work as opposed to breaking it.  Maybe it just provides a dual manner of experiencing the work, we can’t all go to berlin, but the internet may make it so we can say we felt like we were there.