In the preliminary stages of the UNESCO exhibition project Art Special Hansa in Cologne's Hansagymnasium, I held a workhops with the students about what it means to say no, and how this word may sometimes be used in an ambigous context. Once the students expressed a desire to participate in the project, I made video recordings of youths of different nationalities loudly screaming NO! For the duration of the exhibition a basin with a loudspeaker attached to its bottom was filled with water and stood in a darkened classroom in front of the blackboard. The tables and chairs were symetrically lined up to the blackboard. With a single-beamed LCD video projector, the video recordings of students screaming "NO!" were projected onto the water's surface. This functioned as a mirror and cast the video image onto the blackboard. With every "NO!" the water's surface and the projected image went into motion due to the acoustic impulse, erasing the projected image. At this moment, the image of the youth was exchanged with that of another so that this new person would be seen as soon as the water's surface again grew calm. The intervals between the different "NO!" screams lasted approximately 60 seconds. During this period the image of the respective person appeared as a film still.

Technical data: Water basin, video projector, video player with tape on loop, amplifier, loudspeaker.


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