Art Space proudly opens the installation ERBSENZÄHLER Quality Sorter by the German artist Verena Friedrich. All are welcome to the opening in presence of the artist!

“The good ones go into the pot, the bad ones go into your crop.” That’s how the story goes in Cinderella. But who actually decides what’s good and bad? And what happens when complex decision-making processes are increasingly automated and delegated to “intelligent” systems?

Today's “intelligent” systems often run on invisible human labor and subjective decision-making processes that have been crystallized into hard facts through formalization and automation. When the machine appears autonomous, one easily assumes that its decisions are neutral, objective, and rational. However, when one becomes the decision maker, one quickly finds oneself on shaky ground. Classifying a complex world and reducing it to pregiven binaries turns out to be a vague, troubling, and even violent endeavor.

In this exhibition, the EZ Quality Sorter V2 as part of the ERBSENZÄHLER (EN: bean counter; SE ärträknaren, lit.: pea counter) project, explores the increasing quantification of life through mathematical-technical procedures and systems— from counting and sorting to statistics, to computer-aided processes—and the worldview that goes along with it.

Verena Friedrich is an artist and assistant professor at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, Germany. Her time-based installations blend organic, electronic, and sculptural media, and explore the possibilities and limits of technological intervention and control. Her works have been featured in exhibitions, media art festivals, and conferences around the world. She has received several awards and grants, including a work stipend from Kunstfonds Foundation, and the International Media Award for Science and Art from ZKM Karlsruhe. Her project EZ Quality Sorter V2 has received an honorary mention in the category “Artificial Intelligence & Life Art” at the 2023 Prix Ars Electronica Linz and was previously presented at the Matsudo Art Science Festival “Seeds of Hope” in Japan.
The Exhibition “Verena Friedrich. ERBSENZÄHLER Kvalitetssorterare V2” is produced by Art Space Södertörn in cooperation with the research projects The Digital Welfare State and Automating Welfare, managed by Prof. Anne Kaun. Art Space Södertörn (MA513) is open weekdays 10.00-16.00 at Södertörn University Campus.