"Silicon Cities" by Heiko Hellwig

In my new series “Silicon Cities” I explore and reveal the core of our digital society. It is a society in which we can no longer grasp the paths information is taking, what channels can and may be used for which kind of information. Even when looking up close, information paths, interconnects, processors and storage space are all macroscopically detailed and thus hardly comprehensible: they won’t easily reveal the information they hold and transport, but rather conceal it within their digital architecture. This series captures the complexity and impenetrable character of digital machines, which is aesthetic and frightening at the same time. Their structures seem to resemble the structures of modern megacities and remind us of highway traffic routes out of science fiction movies.

The images are intended to be printed in squares of 120 x 120 cm, in order to reveal the details and secrets of these digital metropolises to the observer, encouraging him to discover some organic traces at some intersection.

I am influenced and intrigued by the Bauhaus artists, especially Lionel Feininger and Oskar Schlemmer. Above all by Schlemmer’s approach “to rethink (things/concepts) from scratch" ("die Dinge von Grund auf neu zu denken" ) to find constructive answers to the industrialisation, today’s digitalisation and its consequences for our society.

I am also inspired by the subtle political photography of Andreas Gurkski as well as the intimate portraits by the English photographer Platon.

In order to bring my work to live, I carefully choose different photographic techniques fitting to the theme of a series. It is my artistic goal to merge actual social concerns with my own emotions into touching imagery to inspire critical, sustainable thought in the observer.