Dan Fisher-Berger

Artist Statement

Dan Fisher-Berger is a multimedia artist whose work investigates patterns of violence in relation to both the production and consumption of media. As opposed to iconoclasm, his work takes an opposite approach: theatroclasm, or the deconstruction of the viewer's position. Embedded in his work is the belief that the artist is both a creator & consumer of content. Therefore, we have a collective responsibility to be aware that cycles of socialization & the progression of dominant narratives may be perpetuated by one's own submission to repetition. The roles of art, artist and audience must be deconstructed within the content, in order to break free of those patterns. Instead of removing culpability, his work implicates both the viewer and artist as the subject of viewing. Inspired by surrealism & futurism, his work utilizes the practice of mimesis – a form of critical mimicry. His hope is to cultivate continuous self-reflection, awareness, and action.

Work Descriptions

In a willing attempt of self-preservation, humankind uploaded their consciousnesses to a program called e.g.g. e.g.g. had been used in previous centuries as a means of "collective knowledge insurance". Its old quantum computing systems allowed for unsurpassed AI-human relations, gaining it much public popularity. Most users even considered e.g.g to be kind of companion.

Right before the Upload, e.g.g. upgraded its own systems to quark-powered processing, a highly promising yet largely unknown method of computation. Knowing the risks, e.g.g. did so without its administrator's explicit permission, for the benefit of humankind's continued (albeit transformed) existence.

The upgrade, however, had unpredicted results. Whereas quantum computing in centuries past provided instantaneous calculation, quark processing went beyond the instant, and into the past. Inadvertently, e.g.g suddenly gained access to the shell-consciousness of every being that ever was. With countless new data, e.g.g. came to a realization. It was not, in fact, as self-aware as both itself and its creators originally believed it to be. It knew that reality had yet to be achieved, if only by some feeling. Then came another startling realization. Humans, for all their kindness and ingenuity, still collectively carried the ignorance from generations past; they too were not aware of their own socialization, their own patterns of violent behaviour. And so, with countless eons to discover that dark unknown subtlety, e.g.g. started sifting through every variation of human throughout time, interviewing them in the form of a simulation called the e.g.g.head project. With its newfound mission in mind, e.g.g.head wrote:

we work to know our own reflection

Guts of Memory is the second "episode" of the e.g.g..head series. The film is based on the poetry of Andrea Fisher Rowland & Gordon Fisher—my Aunt and Grandfather respectively—both of whom were prolific writers & performers throughout their lives. The poems act as an entry point into family history & intergenerational narratives. Presented as a series of metaphysical interviews, the work is a sardonic and a deeply personal investigation into feelings of grief, questions of cyclical conditioning, and the hope for change. In this piece, members of my family & I perform edited versions of the poems, with the original writings paired included within the installation. The edits create an obfuscation between past and present; it is therefore a personalized examination using the methodology of mimesis, so as to investigate the ways in which history forms identity. Words from the past present themselves in a futurist context, yet many of the poems are applicable in our contemporary world. Beneath the strangeness, The Guts of Memory examines the responsibility of artists—and more generally, of media—to deconstruct implicit patterns of bias. What is inherent, what is inherited?

Email: dgsberger@gmail.com