Z1binärWein

Following Paul Jaray’s exhibition as a Jewish automotive engineer in the mid-20th century, Z1binärWein is another project at the intersection of art and technology.

One of the most important inventions of the 20th century was developed in Berlin between 1936 and 1938: the Z1. It is considered the first computer, built by Konrad Zuse in Kreuzberg. This computer stood on Methfesselstraße until the entire house was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1944. Micro-traces of the Z1 are suspected to remain in the ground.

Exactly on this site today, there is another Berlin peculiarity: a vineyard.

Without computers, there would be no digitalization today, no Industrial Revolution 4.0, and no generative AI. The striking aspect of current AI was already inherent in the logic of the first computer: on a material level, we see cables, semiconductors, and hard drives. But on an imaginary level, we see numbers, texts, images, graphics. At times, we even believe we are dealing with a consciousness. How can that be?

Wine can be understood in a similar systematics. On a material level, the plant absorbs nutrients from the soil and transforms them into fruit through light and photosynthesis. This fruit is then harvested, pressed, and consumed. On an imaginary level, a transformation of cerebral and cognitive processes also takes place. Literature has been filled with this phenomenon for millennia.

At the Kreuzberg vineyard in question, the strands of computers and wine intersect. This unique situation will be explored in a research project using a new technology: LiFi.

LiFi works like WiFi, transmitting information via radio waves. However, LiFi sends a high-frequency binary code as a light wave. And it is light that enables vines to grow.

The research project will investigate how LiFi can affect grapevines. The digital communication between the grapevine’s root system and the remaining micro-traces of the Z1 in the soil will be explored. The plants will be exposed to informed light or light data. As a side effect, informed grapes will emerge, which will be pressed into a special wine that could potentially contain information about the Z1. The goal is to retrieve the last calculation process of the Z1 before its destruction.

The project is understood as artistic research. It develops processually and remains open-ended.

Participants

Hannes Lewerenz is, and Daniel Mayer was, the winemaker of the Kreuzberg vineyard. With their oenological expertise, they support the project.

Hofgrün is the (wild) perennial nursery on Methfesselstraße, where the vineyard is located. The managing directors, Marcel Zierke and Jesse Bertram, support the project. The site enables LiFi installations, grape observation, soil prospection, and events.

Barbara and Friedrich Wenz are soil and humus experts who practice their knowledge and research in fields and gardens. They will examine and stimulate possible communication in the soil between the grapevines and the miniature remains of the Z1.

Dr. Anagnostis Paraskevopoulos from the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute Berlin and his research team developed the LiFi technology and are providing it for the project.

Konrad Zuse is regarded as the inventor of the computer in Berlin from 1936 onward. As a computer developer, he was largely unrecognized for most of his life. Some of his inventions were initially attributed to others. Only very late did his work gain more attention. Konrad Zuse was also an artist, painting over 900 pictures. His relationship with the Nazi regime was ambivalent. In the 1940s, he was involved in the development of guided bombs, among other projects. He did not join the NSDAP.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a Baroque philosopher, mathematician, and Enlightenment thinker. He invented the eight-bit binary code, which remains the basis of computer communication today.

Kunsthaus Dahlem accompanies and supports the project. The institution’s program inherently includes a critical perspective on artistic figures during the Nazi era.

Martin G. Schicht
He initiated the project in 2020. As an artist and curator from Berlin, Zurich, and Valsolda, Martin G. Schicht frequently works on projects concerning the theme of time. From this context, he explores the relationship between digitality and time. His medium is the time capsule.

In his artistic approach, this time capsule can take various forms. It may indeed be a box in which a specific object is sent into the future. Such boxes are sometimes embedded in connection with special architecture. It may also take the form of a burial, establishing a connection to archaeology and history. Time capsules in his work can also be realized as land art, text, and performance.

His projects are characterized by extensive research and artistic exploration, often at the intersection of art, technology, philosophy, and science.

He frequently collaborates with young people who can carry memories into the future themselves. He also conducts interviews with older artists to preserve their memories. His projects respond to the social situation on-site, resulting in socially inclusive participatory projects. His time-related projects are often democratic and participatory, involving diverse cultural and social groups.

In 2020, as part of a time project at Kunsthaus Pasquart in Biel/Bienne, he changed his name from Martin G. Schmid to Martin G. Schicht. More about him and his work can be found here: www.martingschicht.net.