Under the title "MIND THE GAP - An Illumination of the Gender Data Gap", photography and film graduate Nicole Wilke exhibited the results of her bachelor's thesis at the Nordstadtgalerie for around two weeks. The young photographer sheds light in a unique way on a topic that often seems invisible: the "Gender Data Gap" - in the truest sense of the word. The art of light drawing has resulted in very special photographs.
The exhibition can still be visited online at GALERI3D(Opens in a new tab) . GALERI3D is a technically sophisticated 3D reconstruction of the Nordstadtgalerie, with which exhibitions can be virtually expanded and meaningfully supplemented. It also makes the exhibitions accessible to people who are unable to visit the Nordstadtgalerie in person.
Drawing with light
So-called "light drawings" are created in the dark and depict the movement of one or more light sources, which are captured photographically using long exposures. For her final thesis, Nicole Wilke used the "Lunic Pixel Painter", a light drawing tool that she developed in collaboration with software developer Lukas Schiermeister. The tool makes it easy to project photos, patterns and texts onto a photo. During the 30-second photo shoot, observers only see a glowing LED stick, as the motif only becomes recognizable in the finished image.
The gender data gap
For centuries, data in all areas of life, such as society, medicine, business studies and culture, has been collected mainly by men - about men. The result: a gap in our data - the so-called "gender data gap".
In a world that is largely shaped by data, the lack of a female perspective in almost all areas of life has negative consequences. Even if this gap is usually not caused by malicious intent, but by a kind of non-thinking, in the worst case it has deadly consequences. According to forecasts, it will take another 285 years before equality between the female and male sexes is fully achieved.
The exhibition
With her graduation project, the graduate aims to stimulate public discourse on the still relatively invisible topic of the "gender data gap". In addition to eight light-drawn photographs, the exhibition consists of an earlier filmic, light-drawn work by the artist, which was created in collaboration with students Mandy Heller and Lars Frühling. The history of the development of the light drawing tool "Lunic Pixel Painter" also became a theme.
Pixel Painter Workshop
In the fully booked Pixel Painter workshop on October 2, participants drew with light themselves. Individually selected motifs were projected into the darkened surroundings with the help of the StudyScouts (Opens in a new tab) and then captured photographically. As students at the university of applied sciences, the StudyScouts provide practical insights into the courses on offer(Opens in a new tab) at eye level.