Andreas Horlitz
Our modern obsession for recording our daily activities – number of steps, heart rate, sleeping activity – may seem like a recent product of a highly-connected world. Twenty years ago, Andreas Horlitz was already fascinated by actimetry (the scientifically more accurate version of today’s wearables). The artworks here exemplify his interpretations of actimetry-derived circadian rhythm patterns in different formats using mirrored glass, steel, and importantly, illumination.
Andreas Horlitz’s oeuvre, with its rich, complex imagery, ranges from photography interwoven with words and images in composite prints, collages, and light sources, to architectural installations echoing the context of the site. His work was often immersed in and inspired by scientific data – DNA sequences, spectral analysis of distant stars, rest-activity cycles.
Courtesy of the Horlitz collection, Centre for Chronobiology, Psychiatric University Clinics, Basel.
Courtesy of the Horlitz collection, Centre for Chronobiology, Psychiatric University Clinics, Basel.
Courtesy of the Horlitz collection, Centre for Chronobiology, Psychiatric University Clinics, Basel.
Courtesy of the Horlitz collection, Centre for Chronobiology, Psychiatric University Clinics, Basel.
Cyclus
Cyclus originally consisted of seven years of actimetry data transformed into a high-gloss 24.5 m stainless-steel column, a floating light sculpture in a multi-storey atrium. The rest/sleep phases are punched out and illuminated from within. Cyclus was his most monumental work. For Lighten Up!, the installation consists of 4 modules connected in a 6.20 m-high column.
Courtesy of the Horlitz collection, Centre for Chronobiology, Psychiatric University Clinics, Basel.
Courtesy of the Horlitz collection, Centre for Chronobiology, Psychiatric University Clinics, Basel.
Panorama
Panorama is an impressive installation located on the executive floor of a life insurance firm, consisting of twenty-eight engraved light cabinets lighting up the hallways of the building.
The silver mirrored glass cabinets are etched with the actimetry data of the rest-activity cycle covering the human life span from birth to old age, represented as abstract repetitive black and white patterns.
One of the light boxes and a photograph of seventeen of the original 28 actimetry datasets that were used for the installation are featured in Lighten Up!