Alter Bahnhof Video Walk

Alter Bahnhof Video Walk; 2012; Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller

Here is an attempt to document our 2nd piece made for dOCUMENTA (13). Viewers are given an ipod and headphones and asked to follow the prerecorded video through the old train station in Kassel. The overlapping realities lead to a strange, perceptive confusion in the viewers brain. Hard to document and harder to explain. We only present the recorded audio here, but when doing the walk the real sounds mix with the recorded adding another level of confusion as to what is real and what is fiction. Wear headphones to get the full effect of the original binaural recording.

This is a 6 minute clip of a 26 minute piece. Credits for the entire piece follow.

Production Manager
Christoph Platz

Production
Annika Rixen
Zev Tiefenbach

dOCUMENTA (13) assistants
Feodora Pallas
Carolin Schulz
Tomke Braun
Camilla Geier
Chiara Ianeselli

Thanks to
Jay Smith and Laura Rapp
Sennheiser Canada
Offener Kanal Kassel
Armin Ruda
Bali-Kinos im KulturBahnhof
Frank Thöner
Deutsche Bahn
Ralf König
The City of Kassel
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
Christine Litz
Susanne Engelbogen
dOCUMENTA (13)
The Canada Council for the Arts
The Banff Centre for the Arts
Horst Hoheisel

Ipods funded by
Jay Smith and Laura Rapp

Headphones supplied by
Sennheiser Canada

Director of Photography
Martin Kukula

Camera
Cardiff & Miller

Denk-Stein-Sammlung Memorial Project (1988-1995) by
Horst Hoheisel

"Ballade Von Den Seeräubern"
Words by Bertolt Brecht
Music adapted from Émile Wesly's "L'Étendard de la Pitié"
Euphonium and Vocals by
Jason Liebert
Tuba by Stefan Pahlke

"Caravan" (not heard in this clip)
Music by Juan Tizol
Words by Irving Mills
Euphonium and Vocals by
Jason Liebert
Tuba by Stefan Pahlke

"Cantus Curatio VIII (3rd Movement)" (not heard in this clip)
Composed by Da Jeong Choi
Trombones played by
Bram Fournier
Karol Gajda
Peter Leipold
Mikael Rudolfsson
Konstantin Udert
Johannes Weidner

"Ballet"
Choreographed by
Brigitte Gautschi
Danced by
Luisa Engelbogen

"Dance for 2" (not seen in this clip)
Choreographed
and Danced by
Laurie Young &
Grayson Millwood

Cast

Older Woman (with red shirt)
Ingrid Masuhr

Older Man (War Recollection)
Werner Dettmar

Fake TV Crew
Tobias Böhm
Christoph Neugebauer

Man in Corridor
Jürgen Wink

Extras
Tomke BraunBorak Busak
Nicole Dörnbach
Camilla Geier
Brigitte Gautschi
Aurelio Ghirardelli
Aykot Gner
Patrick Happe
Chiara Ianeselli
Luzia Johann
Paul Jung
Benjamin Koziol
Elisabeth Krämer
Cristina Losada-Sarmiento
Maria Montesi
Florence Planger
Radek Pater
Melanie Räuschel
Lena Reisner
Nefeli Skarmea
Carmen Schilling
Carolin Schulz
Iliana Seidel
Iacopo Seri
Thorsten Streichardt
Frank Thöner
Tetjana Zolotopupova
Feodora Pallas
Louisa Engelbogen
Jan Marthiensen
Henrik Groß

Additional Thanks
Michael Gaertner
Eric Fagervik
Titus Madelechner
Carlo Crovato
Clara Meister

[buresmiller]

It turned out impossible to implement the downloadable version for documenta (long story) Unfortunately the guidebook was already printed. Sorry about the confusion. The City of Kassel has purchased the work so perhaps this may happen now... or at least the piece will be available at some point in the future. Hopefully soon. Thanks for your interest.

[elkat]

It is just so good!
I just remember a friend told me:"we are always around by the people, but we are always by myself."
it's like" individual-public", inside-outside" "different but same"

[kool]

Thank you so much for this great peace of art. I found it a beautifull experience to walk in Kassel with this ipod. very much this moment in time with new media mixed. We enjoyed it very much and were talking about it for days.

[buresmiller]

there is now a German language version available at the desk in the Hauptbahnhof. We decided against subtitles as there is too much to take in at all at once and try to read titles.

[zdouloubengela]

hey, that experience was one of the best in documenta 13, congrats ! the earphones were, in my mind, the key that really made all this experience so immersive and disturbing as the sounds really felt like acoustic, spacialized and not coming from the earphones ! +++ great work

[CrainyCreation]

Oh, this is awesome. I was at documenta 13, however, the request for this piece of art was so huge, I simply couldnt get my hands on it. Would have loved to experience this, definately inspiring.

[buresmiller]

Unfortunately we spend very little time in Germany now.
Our main studio is now in Canada in the mountains of British Columbia.
Thanks for your comments and best of luck.

[Soyunpandaa]

thanks so much for sharing this. Is truly a piece of art. It brings back a lot of memories of last year when I was living in Germany.

[burnconcrete]

even this video of a video embedded in reality blew me away

[nelej.]

Hello Cardiff and Miller,


what is about that scene in 0:43 when the nature replaces the train station for a while? Why did you do this? Does it have a deeper sense?



Best regards, Nele

[namecomingsoon]

cool...

still don't know why i have to learn this for art class...

[andreakurtz]

Hello, I am a student of Design and Illustration (Lucerne) and wanted to ask you, as already asked before, if I can use your project(s) Alter Bahnhof, City of Forking Paths in my master thesis as an example for augmented reality project in public space. What would really interest me is if you have any Data on how the people reacted or what was the participation rate, also of people who downloaded it. Thank you and big compliments to the project!

[jacowitz]

Is there a specific rendition of this song that was played? This sounds beautiful.

[orkundestici]

Helloo Cardiff and Miller,

Is "video walk" only name of this kind of projects or there is another name? I cannot find any other examples. I remember that my lecturer showed me one more project about video walk.

Thanks.

[siriguela]

I´going to dOCUMENTA from Brazil in 10/09 and cant wait to see your work. Congratulations

[evelynchar]

Hi Janet & George, I went to d13 in August but unfortunately missed your works, which is a great shame because I've heard so many good things about the walk in the train station.We actually tried twice but couldn't get hold of an ipod because of the crowds. In the book it says that the walk is downloadable, but so far I still haven't figured out how to do it. The Documenta's website isn't very helpful in this regard... Would you be kind enough to let me know where I can download that video?

[edgartalbot]

Do you know what is the name of the song playing by musicians? I have it in my mind for few years since my dad showed me this extraordinary video. Regards

[CrainyCreation]

Btw, I will hold a presentation about yours and Janet Cardiffs work this week (as a school project). I must say, im amazed with your works, for me personally, your stuff might be the most interesting on the whole documenta 13, even though I wasnt able to see them in person.

[rtbarnett]

Hi Cardiff and Miller,

I was not sure where else to ask this, but I am a Canadian Master's student in German literature (I study in Ontario) and I am writing my thesis on contemporary art pieces that connect with and commemorate the victims of World War II, and my main focus is this video walk that you have made for the dOCUMENTA (13). I am a fan of the work you have and done, and luckily I even got a chance to do the Alter Bahnhof Video Walk myself because I have studied in Kassel over the past few years and have some friends who live there. I was hoping to ask if I could reference this specific youtube video in my thesis, or perhaps even provide a copy of this documentation (fully credited to you of course)? I would appreciate any reply. Thank you!

[jn]

Hey Janet & George
it would be nice if you could answer me that question why you do things like that and what you actually want to reach ? So what is your reason why you do those things ?
It would be awesome if you could answer me that question for my school project.
Thanks !