Free Projects
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Erik Freydank
Breitscheidplatz
Frederic Brodbeck
0..1
Ying Chen
Absconding
Lorenz Raab
Analoge Brücke
Akitoshi Honda
Artificial Appetizer
Elisa Storelli
Assemblaggio N1
Julius Fuehrer
A Thousand Seeds or the Right to Becoming
Merani Schilcher
autoantibody.3 – Destruction of Self
Frederic Gmeiner
Bericht über R.
Alexander Hahn
Bioinformatics: Nature’s superiority over binary computing
Susa Schmid
Blickskulpturen / Gaze Sculptures
Bruno Gola
Bruto
Ying Chen
Bubbles
Tim Horntrich
Clock Choc
Hsiao Li-Chi
Coffee And Kitty
David Reitenbach
convincing ideas
Jens Wunderling
default to public
Constantin Engelmann
Der Kopist
Valerian Blos
Design as Restriction / Restriction as Design
Özcan Ertek
Devil's Rope: On a Journey of No Return
Sven Gutjahr
Diaries of Alvin Fredriksøn
Tim Horntrich
DropingNews
Robin Woern
Ephememorion
Orlando Helfer Rabaça
Footprint²¹³
Julian Netzer
GOTCHA
Erik Anton Reinhardt
Graphic Design
Stephan Sunder-Plassmann
Hacking Memorials
Martin Kim Luge
Hear the grass growing
Christopher Hoehn
How It Was(n't)
Tim Horntrich
ICSY TK 5000
Julius von Bismarck
Image Fulgurator
Willy Sengewald
Jammer Horn
Florentin Aisslinger
Living with Matter
Monika Hoinkis
Living with Things
Sebastian Wolf
lovesmenot
Andreas Schmelas
Machines At Work
Merani Schilcher
Make Me A Weapon – Destruction of Context
Julia Rosenstock
Meadow of carnivore plants
Frederic Gmeiner
Memory Shapes
Merani Schilcher
Mephista – Destruction of Other
Ying Chen
My queer body, my ownership
Piet Schmidt
möve
Fang Tsai
Nahweh: the Unreachable
Nicenboim Iohanna
Objects of Research
Bill Hartenstein
Palio
Vinzenz Aubry
pendel 1
Hye Joo Jun
Phantom Limb
Markus Kison
Pulse
Kilian Kottmeier
Resource forecast
Felix Worseck
Subordination/Unterordnung
Frederic Brodbeck
Synthetic Flurry
Stephan Sunder-Plassmann
Tagebilder
Stephan Sunder-Plassmann
The Beauty of Oppositions
Andreas Schmelas
The Space Beyond Me
Julius von Bismarck
The Space Beyond Me
Andreas Schmelas
The Visible Invisible
Paul Kolling
thing <ser. no.>
Elisa Storelli
This machine will not switch herself off
David Löhr
Titan
Niklas Söder
Unstable Trajectories
Tilman Richter
Wall of Distribution
Tilman Richter
Wall of Support
Tilman Richter
Wall of Tendencies
Andi Rueckel
木
Andi Rueckel
木 木
Andi Rueckel
木 木 木
Merani Schilcher — Mephista – Destruction of Other
Free Projects
Freud believed that there are two kinds of human instincts, one being the instinct of love and the other the instinct of death. The former is constructive, the latter destructive.
He believed that people generally channel their death instincts outwards. Aggression, for example, arises from the death instincts.
"I am the spirit, ever, that denies!
And rightly so: since everything created,
In turn deserves to be annihilated:
Better if nothing came to be.
So all that you call Sin, you see,
Destruction, in short, what you’ve meant
By Evil is my true element."
"Ich bin der Geist der stets verneint!
Und das mit Recht; denn alles was entsteht
Ist werth daß es zu Grunde geht;
Drum besser wär’s daß nichts entstünde.
So ist denn alles was ihr Sünde,
Zerstörung, kurz das Böse nennt,
Mein eigentliches Element."
Mephistopheles in Faust (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1808)
Mephistopheles is a somewhat undefined character in Goethe's Faust. Void of a unique personality, his sole goal is the destruction of all that exists. As God's adversary he embodies the primal principle of Evil and persistently criticizes His summit of creation – Man. At the same time, he's a materialization of all destructive tendencies within Faust himself, and thus within all human beings. Yet through it all, he fails to realize that he too is nothing but a pawn in a higher being's game.
Mephista is a machine taking on a similar role. Another number in a line-up of machines built to embody human traits. Contrary to Mephisto, she has become frustrated over always being confronted with humans and their emotions, being nothing but a personification. Not capable of bringing herself to feel those same emotions of bliss and love – nor being allowed to – she is doomed to sit on the sidelines begrudging all happy couples she encounters. She's angered. Her coping mechanism sets in, she scours the web for pictures of happy couples and she starts snipping away.