“Wie tickt eigentlich Joshua Weitzel” is a series of works around prosthetic listening and the image of ill artists.

In German, to ask ‘how someone ticks’ means to ask how the personality of people functions. For me, it is very easy to answer the question on how I tick, because my heart emits a ticking noise that is audible to myself and to others. The noise comes from an artificial aortic valve that I received in November 2023 after becoming ill with Infective Endocarditis, a rare inflammation inside the heart. The works are based on two questions that arose from my heart.

1: The ticking of my heart means that i am constantly making a noise that is reflected on surfaces. It has led to a change of how i listen to myself and my surroundings. Immediately, i notice acoustic properties of rooms. I also constantly hear my own pulse. In sound studies, speaking of prosthetic listening has focussed on what the prosthetical ear has brought to listening practices. However, i argue that also a prosthetical heart valve entails the potential for prosthetic listening.

2: Gustav Mahler died from Endocarditis. Before the age of antibiotics and open heart surgery, an Endocarditis-Infection led inevitably to death. Mahler is in line with many other great ‘ill composers’. In fact, there is a culture of idolisation of suffering and illness in the art world. How does that fit into our current time of increasing participation, awareness and medical progress? What are ways of medically aware self-performance, without falling into the traps of either self-expression or illes-idolisation.

The first exhibition of works was held in July 2023 at the gallery Warte für Kunst in Kassel, and generously supported by the culture office of the city of Kassel.

Joshua Weitzel / Massimo Magee.
Cyberma(h)lerei. Aluminium print. 70x90. 2023.