Introduction
Daniel Strauss’s great passion and skill is the creation of artificial paradises in which to dream, relax and let the imagination run free. At the same time, the Berlin-based visual artist just as frequently translates real and actually existing places into digital models with pinpoint accuracy. In both cases, he sees technology as a creative tool for expressing ideas and meaning and transforming them into free, artistic objects. Raised in the Caribbean, Strauss started out as a film director before turning to digital technology and founding the digital studio BEYOND FUTURE. His immersive scenes are situated at the intersection of real and virtual space and translate imaginary objects into new forms of visuality.
In two of his generative video works, for instance, glimmering jellyfish float in the darkness of a bluish-green underwater landscape, illuminated by a distant light that lets the floating sea creatures’ translucent bodies shine brightly. The movement of the jellyfish, which have been simulated by points of light, is smooth and quiet, following a leisurely pace across the image. At the same time, spatial displacement produces a conscious blurring and change in size. All in all, the underwater world has a calming and meditative effect, although the rising and floating of the simulated jellyfish also possesses something uplifting and positively stimulating.
A closer and longer look slowly reveals an additional, exciting association with the maritime world: cosmological elements that have seemingly been introduced into the underwater world or transferred onto it. The rhythmically moving sea creatures’ points of light are suddenly transformed into star clusters wandering through space. And the previously nebulous beams of light in the underwater cave metamorphose into a diffuse cosmic radiance. The two worlds suddenly converge into an imaginary unity as the visual constellations of micro- and macrocosm come together in a single image.
Stephan Reisner
