“What do two-meter-thick rollers sound like as they straighten steel at breakneck speed? What does it sound like when a rock is split by a hydraulic hammer? And what can be seen when a hundred pieces of wood are lifted upward with a single gripper arm?

Oliver Bleckmann and Yannick Harter’s photobook gathers stills from the world of manufacturing — screenshots from videos uploaded by companies for promotional purposes. Glimpses into factories, workshop floors, and testing grounds. Into steel furnaces scattered across the globe, into production lines and laboratories.

A map of production roads. The offshoots of a DIN number. DIN 8580: the standard that organizes manufacturing processes into six subgroups: primary shaping and metal forming. Separating, joining, and coating. Changing material properties.”

Excerpt from the editorial by Lara Hampe

Authors

Oliver Bleckmann, Yannick Harter

Title

MEANS TO AN END, Vol. 1

Year

2026

Pages

382

Format

200 × 270 mm; type area 185 × 260 mm

Typeface

UN-11 from Source Type, 18 & 80 pt

Paper

IGEPA TRND Weiß, 80 g/m², Vol. 2 cm³/g

Cover

Content paper covered with hinge fabric

Print

Digital; Buch- & Kunstdruckerei Keßler GmbH, Weimar, with XEROX C 60

Binding

Buchbinderei Steinhagen, Weimar

Book weight

866 g

Text / Editorial

Lara Hampe

Design

Ossian Osborne, ossianosborne.com

Created during the Lapsus Residency in Timișoara, Romania, "Grinding Gears" continues Yannick Harter's exploration of the relationship between human bodies and industrial processes.

The work references the mechanical vocabularies of manufacturing while questioning the aesthetics of production in an increasingly automated world.

Traditional materials—wood, cotton, bone glue, chalk, and pigment—are confronted by plastic, aluminum alloys, steel, and digital image processing. Organic forms collide with austere machine components.

Between the reproductions of bones and organs and the operational radius of a robotic arm, a relationship of mutual inscription reveals itself. The objects within the space appear abandoned; what remains are references to a human-adapted utility that seems irretrievably lost.

The exhibition features wall-mounted reliefs, suspended sculptures, and objects that blur the line between organic forms and manufactured surfaces—reflecting on the entanglement of natural and synthetic in contemporary production.

Leipzig-based artists Leon Galli and Yannick Harter construct dystopian visions of production processes and labor cycles across multiple media. As members of the media art collective THIS IS FAKE, their practice primarily examines VR/AR, the artistic potential of emerging media and technologies, and their influence on contemporary life and society.

They juxtapose technologized everyday objects such as selfie sticks and Roombas with menacing sculptural constructions. Various objects—some fabricated through 3D printing—encounter large-format screens displaying collaged visual worlds composed of 3D animations, found footage, and textual fragments.

The project explored the intersection of physical and virtual space within the historic industrial architecture of a former pasta factory. Installations included VR experiences, 3D-printed terrain models derived from digital scans, and video works displayed on modified industrial equipment.