Welcome to finissage of ERBSENZÄHLER

On the last day of the exhibition ERBSENZÄHLER at Art Space Södertörn, artist Verena Friedrich will be present during the last hour for dialogues, Q & As and not the least, for assisting you while you make discrimination between peas!

The exhibition is open all day 10.00-16.00.

“The good ones go into the pot, the bad ones go into your crop.” That’s how the story goes in Cinderella. But
who actually decides what’s good and bad? And what happens when complex decision-making processes are
increasingly automated and delegated to “intelligent” systems?
Upon entering the exhibition space, visitors encounter an industrial-looking sorting plant. Using a feeding
mechanism and a conveyor belt, the EZ Quality Sorter V2 automatically separates, analyzes, and sorts pea
seeds into good and poor quality. If a pea is categorized as “bad,” it is sent to the reject bin. If it is
categorized as “good,” it eventually enters the container for further processing.
Visitors that approach the workstation are invited to take a seat and visually inspect the peas one by one
through an optical device. They are asked to assess their quality and enter their selection by pressing either a
green or red button. With each button press, the machinery takes a close-up picture of the respective pea and,
according to the user’s selection, adds it to an image database. Once the user leaves the station, the machine
automatically continues the sorting process based on the previous user inputs.
Today's “intelligent” systems often run on invisible human labor and subjective decision-making processes
that have been crystallized into hard facts through formalization and automation. When the machine appears
autonomous, one easily assumes that its decisions are neutral, objective, and rational. However, when one
becomes the decision maker, one quickly finds oneself on shaky ground. Classifying a complex world and
reducing it to pregiven binaries turns out to be a vague, troubling, and even violent endeavor.
The EZ Quality Sorter V2 is part of the ERBSENZÄHLER (EN: bean counter; lit.: pea counter) project
which explores the increasing quantification of life through mathematical-technical procedures and
systems— from counting and sorting to statistics, to computer-aided processes—and the worldview that goes
along with it.
Verena Friedrich is an artist and assistant professor at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, Germany. Her
time-based installations blend organic, electronic, and sculptural media, and explore the possibilities and
limits of technological intervention and control. Her works have been featured in exhibitions, media art
festivals, and conferences around the world. She has received several awards and grants, including a work
stipend from Kunstfonds Foundation, and the International Media Award for Science and Art from ZKM
Karlsruhe. Her project EZ Quality Sorter V2 has received an honorary mention in the category “Artificial
Intelligence & Life Art” at the 2023 Prix Ars Electronica Linz and was previously presented at the Matsudo
Art Science Festival “Seeds of Hope” in Japan.
The Exhibition “Verena Friedrich. ERBSENZÄHLER Kvalitetssorterare V2” is produced by Art Space
Södertörn in cooperation with the research projects The Digital Welfare State and Automating
Welfare, managed by Prof. Anne Kaun. Art Space Södertörn (MA513) is open weekdays 10.00-16.00
at Södertörn University Campus.