The Big Crash
art for the pending burst of the real estate bubble by Malte Steiner
The Big Crash is an expansive art piece which branches out in many forms, such as painting, electronic art, sound and music, net art, sculpture and installation art. The piece embraces Steiner’s concept of the contemporary interdisciplinary Gesamtkunstwerk and started early 2019.

The thematic departure point is the instability of the real estate market as a consequences of extreme gentrification. Something that is actively taking place in all bigger cities around the globe. There is a pending ‘big bubble crash’ as a consequence of this and the piece deals with the growing instability this creates and the effects of it on society.

The Big Crash is intended to grow, and the first parts are based on a software that mines the Internet for real estate data, here websites that work as intermediaries of rented properties, rooms and flats. Berlin is here chosen as an example since the market and the city's gentrification has expanded in a such high speed over the last years.

Malte Steiner wrote a software which harvests the data of the websites, e. g. prices and square-meters, but also the visuals of the advertisements. These are analyzed with a machine learning algorithm, performing an image segmentation and separates objects found in these images into picture fragments.

These fragmentations will consequently be used in the art pieces. The numerical data of the prices i.e. is transferred to MIDI and OSC data to control synthesizers, creating generative soundscapes.

kunsten.nu wrote about the exhibition at Spanien 19C in Aarhus: "Steiners udstilling fungerer på den måde ret virkningsfuldt som ‘byudviklingens dystre baglokale’ og rummer desuden et stærkt steds-vedkommende aspekt: Spanien 19C på havnen i Aarhus ryger nemlig snart som endnu et offer for den markedsdrevne gentrificering, der forlængst er gået i selvsving."

contact: info AT thebigcrash DOT net
dates:jump to the list of works
8. September - 22. October 2023
The Big Crash soloexhibition at Kulturhus Björkboda, Finland
Opening the 8. September with a concert of the piece for modular synthesizer and real estate data
3. August - 27. August 2023
The Big Crash soloexhibition at Myymälä2 Helsinki, Finland
24. March 2023
concert 'piece for modular synthesizer and real estate data' Oksasenkatu 11, Helsinki, Finland
7. October 2022 20:00
piece for modular synthesizer and real estate data is going to be performed by Elektronengehirn at Glitch Art Festival at fu:bar Zagreb, Croatia.
11. September 2022 14:00
piece for cello and real estate data to be performed by cellist Joasia Cieślak at Kalasatama, outside the Redi Mall (in the passage between the buildings), Hermannin rantatie 5 00580 Helsinki. Meeting point at the sculpture in front. Part of performance protocols Nordic Session #3
16. - 21. August 2022
The Big Crash VR is shown at Rencontres Internationales Berlin edition at Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt Berlin
5. - 8. May 2022
The Big Crash VR in the Oculus headset version is shown at Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin from 5 to 8 May 2022 in Paris at Rue Française Gallery - VR lab
9. April - 8. May 2022
The Big Crash VR in the Mozilla Hubs version is part of the digital section of the exhibition KP22 Aarhus, Denmark.
18. - 27. September 2021
exhibition of the computer generated score 'piece for cello and real estate data' at Third Space Helsinki, Finland, at performance protocols Nordic Sessions #3.
25. - 29. August 2021
The Big Crash VR is shown at Rencontres Internationales Berlin edition at Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt BerlinDue to Covid19 the organisers decided to drop the VR part and show it next year
1. - 25. August 2021
full solo exhibition at the new XM3 - rum for samtidskunst Aalborg, Denmark

25. - 31. July 2021
The Big Crash VR in the Mozilla Hubs version is shown at the XR Music section of ICMC 2021
23. - 28. February 2021
The Big Crash VR is chosen to be shown by Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin
19. November - 9. December 2020
The Price Of Berlin can be seen till the 9. December at the Piksel exhibition on location at Studio 207 in Bergen, Norway. The Mozilla Hubs version of The Big Crash VR can be experienced at https://hubs.mozilla.com/ufU2mgo/the-big-crash within a browser on desktop, mobile or VR headset.
19.-22. November 2020
The Price Of Berlin will be exhibited on this years Piksel festival in Bergen, Norway. Additional to a physical exhibition on location there will be a multiuser online 3D/VR space within Mozilla Hubs which can be explored on desktop computer, mobile phone and VR headsets without any installation of further software.
9.-13. September 2020
The Chants Of Real Estate Data, new 3d / VR work part of the Sound Campus Metaverse exhibition, Ars Electronica 2020 Linz, Austria
20. May 2020
The Price Of Berlin will be part of the exhibition at AMRO20 (Art Meets Radical Openness) in Linz, Austria. It was planned to show the 4 parts of it on location but history took another course and the exhibition has to be online. Malte Steiner created for it a 3D webenvironment in which that piece can be experienced from a different perspective. Opening is on the 20. May. Additionally Steiner will give a lightning talk about using 3D Engines in his art on the 22. May 11:00, from early experiments with VRML in the 90s to Godot Engine for this new piece.
28. February 2020
concert 'piece for modular synthesizer and real estate data' performancerum Aarhus
8. February - 8. March 2020
full exhibition at Spanien 19C Aarhus, Denmark

We put a video online on Youtube to give some quick impressions from that exhibition: https://youtu.be/RghAp3_qfko
18. September 2019
premiere of the electro acoustic 'piece for modular synthesizer and real estate data' at ExperimenTik Berlin, Germany
exhibitions works
works created to be shown in an exhibition context in physical spaces
  • The Building Blocks Of The Big Crash
    electronic installation and paintings
  • The Price Of Berlin
    sculptures based on 3D printing and e-paper
  • The Great Gentrificator
    kinetik sculpture
  • Stacheldraht über den Dächern Prenslauer Berg
    oil painting
  • Deep Estate and Planned Collapse
    dynamic drawings created with e-paper displays
  • The Big Crash VR
    immersive virtual reality world for Oculus headset or Mozilla Hubs
  • Squatwash
    woodsculpture
    after artwashing property developers use now the squat aesthetics for gentrification
  • Building Blocks AR
    participatory augmented reality artpiece
  • Listening section
    headphones section with earlier sound pieces about gentrification and urbanism from 1987 and 1994 and information about other works related to the topic from the 2000s like his art collaboration Urban Units
  • Tonight We Sell Berlin and We Sell Your Home
    found artifacts from Germany and Denmark showing how real estate is currently pitched by agents
music works
Electroacoustic pieces for concerts and audio releases
netart
internet based works
© Malte Steiner 2019 - 2022 | see also Absolute Power | block4