Character
Concept
Line Art

About

Contact

Christoph Steger // Moving Images

50 Parallel Nord
Kulturhalle Lohr, Germany"50 Parallel Nord" is a community art project that was created with the participation of eleven young asylum seekers in the town of Lohr am Main, Bavaria, Germany. The teenagers were temporarily living in the school building where Steger was a teacher twenty years ago. They created animation sequences during three weekend workshops. Using virtual architecture, animated re-enactments and visualizations, an experimental video investigates geographical and cultural migration as well as the role of pedagogy in shaping identity beyond national or regional borders.

They also published a book of conversations about migration which was sold to raise money for a legal aid fund for young asylum seekers in Germany. The project was presented to the public in the format of an intercultural celebration that featured live music, food and a dance party.

The project was created in collaboration with several non-profits (Lebenshilfe Main-Spessart – the organization who hosted the youths, Helferkreis Asyl – a local volunteer group, Jugendzentrum Lohr – a local youth centre, SpessArt – a local artist-run organzitan, and the Municipality of Lohr a. Main). It was generously funded through the Sparkasse Foundation for International Cooperation, Lion’s Club Main-Spessart, Kulturamt der Stadt Lohr a. Main, as well as a Professional Development Grant from the California College of the Arts. Idea and Realisation: Christoph Steger, developed in Workshops with unaccompanied young refugees
Supported by: Arbeitskreis Asyl, Stadt Lohr, Jugendzentrum Lohr

VIDEO EXCERPT

TV DOCUMENTATION

Walk to Walk  (With Lynn Marie Kirby & Anne Hege)
Cushionworks, San Francisco, CAI was invited to collaborate with Lynn Marie Kirby’s and Etel Adnan’s exhibition of drawings. To honor the nature of collaboration, Lynn Kirby facilitated a series of performances with fellow artists during the exhibition at Cushionworks. I proposed a site-specific performance in which a singer, animated AR videos, and the gallery audience would create a serendipitous audiovisual composition. Lynn and I started an exchange of line drawings that recorded our daily morning walks on either side of the Bay. I animated the drawings in short loops that also incorporate animated graphics derived from Etel Adnan’s old Olivetti Typewriter. Composer Anne Hege then created scores based on her voice as well as rhythms using the recorded clicks of Adnan’s typewriter. In the space, each guest became an active participant by using an Augmented Reality app on their smartphones to activate the videos by holding their camera phones against the drawings in the gallery. Each drawing corresponded to one specific video with sound. This filled the gallery space with a unique soundscape emanating from the phone speakers. Anne Hege improvised live by singing in response to the soundscape. Design, Animation, Coding: Christoph Steger
Concept: Anne Hege, Christoph Steger, Lynn Marie Kirby
Composition & Voice: Anne Hege
VIDEO DOCUMENTATION

Graphic Novel (in progress)
Ongoing series of ink drawings on paper. 
Drawings: Christoph Steger
©2024Christoph Steger