© 1994-2008 Fred Fröhlich
••• JA2, Page 01
Videoinstallation for 44 Public LED Screens, Russia, 2005
JA II
The video animation JA II consists of 25 Russian words with exclusively positive connotations as well as numerical values calculated using a formula. The phrases and their respective word-values were shown in repeated cycles at such a speed
that they were only fleetingly legible. The 15 second clip was specifically produced to be feed into the network of the largest Russian provider of publicly-displayed video advertising space. It was displayed during one Month every 5 minutes throughout Russia on 44 of the company’s monitors.
© 1994-2008 Fred Fröhlich
••• JA2, Page 02
The cutting speed is so fast in fact that the words can hardly be read individually. Although the words in the clip aim at extolling products, their meaning becomes a mere after-image effect.
The intention has less to do with individual phrases and much more to do with the entirety of their positive meaning and their salvation-like promise. This is the essence of any marketing message.
In 1994 in Leipzig (a city located in the former GDR), the project JA was realized, which would serve as a basis for JA II. As is the case in the former GDR, Russia’s post-communism identity is marked by metaphysical emptiness and confusion. Companies from around the world have been seeking to fill the void left by the former communist propaganda by injecting the promises of capitalist marketing. The promise of happiness for every single individual has supplanted the doctrine of happiness for all. In this new consumer society, happiness is always stamped by a price expressed in numbers.
The reduction of colors in JA II counteracts the bright mult-colored asthetic of advertising; the combination of words/products and the number/price repeats the basic scheme of capitalist value degeneration. At the same time, the radical formalist reduction and choice of a stark
red-black contrast bring to mind the tradition of Russian Constructivism. It combines this heroic break-through period of modern art with the whirl of free-flowing meaning generation that characterizes contemporary advertisement.
Alex Klose
© 1994-2008 Fred Fröhlich
••• JA2, Page 03
Spread of the installation
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