Robert Henke

German sound and laser artist, composer and software developer (Ableton Live), Robert Henke returns to the Barbican’s contemporary music programme for two performances on 23 January 2020. Here he will present CBM 8032 AV – his latest computer graphics and sound project, which received its premiere at Unsound Festival in October 2019.

In this project, vintage hardware produces an audio-visual experience that is completely modern in its complexity and fluidity. It explores the beauty of simple graphics and sound, using five carefully restored computers from the early 1980’s,
running custom software developed by the artist and his team. The work is about the ambivalence between a contemporary aesthetic and the usage of obsolete and limited technology from 40 years ago. ‘Everything presented within the project could have been done in 1980,’ says Henke, ‘but it needed the cultural backdrop of 2019 to come
up with the artistic ideas driving it.’

Robert Henke, who is also known for his ground-breaking techno productions under the Monolake moniker, returns to the Barbican following on from his presentations of Lumière I as part of the Barbican’s Digital Revolution exhibition in 2014 and Lumière III in 2017.

Created by Robert Henke with Anna Tskhovrebov, Mark J-K, Ralf Suckow and Sebastian Wolf.