Amy Karle's artistic practice is characterised by an exploration of the connecting lines between digital, physical and biological systems. In doing so, she addresses the question of the human in the interplay with ever new technological achievements that change our lives. Contrary to the otherwise often dystopian artworks that deal with technology, the US-based artist creates a vision of the future in which technology is actively used to trigger positive effects on humanity and our planet. How does the convergence, mixing and reconfiguration of organic and artificial bodies affect our definition of what it means to be human?

The "Internal Collection" series of works was realised from 2016 to 2017. These are 3D-printed objects combined with other materials - clothes made of silk, polyester, cotton, natural and synthetic fibres. Merging conventions about the body and beauty, this clothing series based on human anatomy shows representations of internal systems in wearable form. Nervous systems, tendons and ligaments, and the pulmonary system served as starting points. In a transformation of organic systems and their microscopic structures into aesthetic objects, the view is directed to the microcosm of man - as well as to the production methods of the fashion industry, in which new 3D printing processes are used. Each dress in the series of works was produced using a different method. First, 3D scans of the human body were made and translated into anatomical drawings in the form of digital designs (CAD). The laser-cut pattern parts were finally sewn together by machine and hand to create the final object.

In the process, the artist makes use of a number of helping hands from different sectors - both in terms of the realisation as well as the production and presentation of her objects. Sampling" or "cross-over" becomes particularly tangible here as an aesthetic strategy of media art: Nam June Paik already had the first robot built by a company as the performer of an art performance. The artistic moment is shifted to the moment of the idea (a principle of early conceptual art) - the realisation is done by others in the corresponding disciplines (e.g. someone else writes the code). This inter- or transdisciplinary procedure reveals itself as an explicitly artistic method in the process of creating a work. As has already been stated with regard to Karle's works: "Her works are hybrids that encompass both artistic and scientific methods.

In addition to the objects, the artist realised several videos and photographs with models presenting her objects. Inevitably, the association with Oskar Schlemmer's "Triadic Ballet" arises, in which figurines cast in shapes and colour presented a staging. Fashion and art seem to have always been closely intertwined - not least the fashion chosen by the artists decisively defines the public image of artists. Would Joseph Beuys have been Beuys without his hat? Would Vivienne Westwood have become such a fashion icon without art?

The fashion industry has always been at the forefront of innovation and technology, from the first inventions such as the loom and sewing machine to the rise of automation and e-commerce. As our lives become increasingly intertwined with the digital world, new technology is also shaping the new face of fashion, driving the industry's creativity, wearability, production and sustainability, which inevitably changes aesthetics.

With "Internal Collection", Amy Karl questions the current body image as well as the new spaces of possibility of digital corporeality. The selection from the "Internal Collection" series of works presented in the esc medien kunst labor directs our gaze to a future that is aware of the potentials of technological achievements beyond the dark side of technology: between design and art, fashionable garment and work of art, between the aestheticisation of the finest nervous systems of the human body and the transformation into an artistic object that can be worn by living models.

In an essay by Marlene Bart, Johannes Breuer and Alex Leo Freier, the artist's works are described as follows: "Karle's exploration of the human body confronts us with hidden rhizomorphic connections under our skin, aspects of spirituality and the ever-advancing technical progress in human medicine and our environment."

[Elisabeth Passath]