Data Totem

A tower of 34 laptops stacked up and tied together. Including two lashes made of ethernet cables connected to various RJ45 plugs. (120 x 100 x 150cm)

"The totem is first of all a sacred link between the spiritual and the earth. It is a mythical form (animal, plant or natural object) considered as the ancestor of a clan, its protective spirit is venerated as such (CNRTL). It represents the memory of the ancients, of those who know. The totem is thus an object of ritual, of transmission of knowledge and memories and of link between the earth (the living) and the spirits. The Data Totem by the German artist Marcel Schwittlick undermines this definition somewhat. The totem here is not a natural object, it is an association of technical objects. The memory it contains is both tangible, because it is recorded on hard disks, but also inaccessible because these machines are broken and unusable. This pile of laptops is at the same time a trace of the memory and the past uses of their owner, but also a pile of waste - technical objects forever abandoned. This analogy between totem - as a spiritual and protective link with the ancestors - and data - technical storage of the memory of users - invites us to question the technological drift of the "modern Westerners" (Latour, 1991). Technique replaces nature and becomes the only possible (or forced) ontology. We form totems in its (broken) memory. The artist develops his project in a logic that he names "feelings data" (Schwittlick, Voigt, 2019). To feel the data in their quantity and their nature, to make us aware of their presence in our contemporary world. To show their ambiguity between materiality and the impalpable world of clouds." - Antonin Jousse, Curator of "Mémoires des autres mondes" at La Ligne Ouverte (Lille, France)

Data Totem at "Mémoires des autres mondes" at La Ligne Ouverte (Lille, France)

Part of this sculpture are the "Ethernet Whips", an experiment that started as a pre-decessor to the "Data Totem" sculpture. Eventually these objects turned into a failed side-project that got incorporated into the sculpture that was first exposed at the "Feeling Data" solo exhibition at Erratum Gallery in Berlin and was later also on display at SomoS Art House Berlin.