Nils Norman  Hey Rudy! A Phantom on the Streets of Schizz

"Hey Rudy!: A Phantom on the Streets of Schizz", consists of 6 ink-jet panels all drawn using the computer software Illustrator, Nils Normans' software of choice. Taking a less didactic approach, Norman has made a series of drawings that are more wilfully open and playful in their possible interpretation. A dramatic departure from his past method of working - removing text and models - the drawings try to redirect the usual channels of a production of meaning into an uncanny, unknown territory. Each panel contains a series of traced photographic elements: architectural details, bus stops, street plants, strange corners, fleeting moments, weird trees and odd kiosks from visits and drifts through Berlin, that have been collaged into new and imaginary constellations.
By removing the usual signposts Norman hopes to open up a wider more autonomous poetic investigation into areas of the public sphere, urbanomics and utopia.

"Rather than use Photoshop, and make political montages in the tradition of John Heartfeld, Norman eschews this bit-mapped software in favour of the vector based Illustrator. Bit-map software creates large cumbersome files, noting the exact appearance and location of every pixel of the image. Vector-based software, breaks up the image into a series of operations, whole areas condensed into economic algorithms to describe volume, shape and changes in its colour and density. Norman's preference for this light and portable structure of images squares precisely with his preferences in political organisation and action." Gareth James, "Untitled" no 29 winter/spring 2003.