A computer game that punishes mistakes with real pain. The smallest social network in the world. Balls activated – as if by the hand of a ghost – via singing. Volker Morawe and Tilman Reiff’s multisensory artifacts are a counter- proposition to the massively advancing alienation of electronic input/output device users. The two techart artists stage their central artistic inquiry into an alternative user interface as an intense human-machine-human encounter. Since 2001, their quick-witted instruments have been exploring the boundaries between human beings and their gadgets – and that, not always only with caution. Also known as //////////fur////, the artists focus on the tactile interface. They want to make art physically tangible – and that, outside the comfort zone. The duo’s worldwide debut individual exhibition, entitled no pain no game, presents selected works that in various ways invite interaction.

PainStation, a sort of "modern dueling artifact", is considered a milestone and taboo-breaker in media art: the first-ever computer game that does not merely represent pain visually, but actually causes physical pain. Even if the other works presented as part of the exhibition provoke less drastic feelings, what they all have in common is that merely viewing them will not suffice in order to fully experience them. Only visitors who summon up enough courage to enter into this new kind of interaction will, for a time, become part of the installation. It is only in this direct contact that the extra dose of built-in humor becomes apparent, when the interfaces that appear, seemingly familiar at first glance, turn out to behave quite differently than expected…

All of the works, whether single- or multi-user games, have in common the fact that the audience is a significant element of the play concept. Egging players on, cheering, clapping, taking photos – all is welcome. Still, the visitor who will have the most intense experience is the one who personally interacts with and becomes part of the work.

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//////////fur//// are media artists and art critics, gadget artists and game designers. Perceived by some as artistic sadists, they are considered – by reason of their fresh and unconventional approach – the Dadaists of their genre. Their works polarize, provoke and enthrall, and have won prestigious international awards, including the Japan Media Arts Award (2003), an Ars Electronica honorable mention (2002) and the International Media Art Award of the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (2003). Numbering among their international exhibition venues are the MOCA in Shanghai, the Art Fair in Köln, the Yerba Center for the Arts in San Francisco, MoMA in New York and many others.

Volker Morawe, comes from Bremen, was previously a space electronics specialist and producer of musical hits. Tilman Reiff, originally from Munich, is an IT specialist focusing on interface design. The two met at the Kunsthochschule für Medien in Köln, became housemates and thereby laid the foundation for many extraordinary installations that not only invite play, but also, above all, go against the grain of media interaction mechanisms.

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The following works can be seen at the respective gallery
Vžigalica Gallery: Soundslam, snake, Amazing, OIS, Golden Calf
MoTA Point: PainStation, facebox, His Master's Voice, the ////furer////