artist
Mogens Jacobsen
Denmark
Mogens Jacobsen (b. 1959) is a Danish artist working with reactive artifacts and installations. His artistic explorations frequently cross the boundaries of the physical and digital domains, synthesizing contemporary and historical technologies. By blending traditional material aesthetics with digital capabilities, his work tests new formats and materials that challenge the possibilities and constraints inherent in technological systems.
The concept of interactivity is a central theme in his works. He critically examines and expands upon traditional notions of interactivity, moving beyond the prevalent emphasis in digital art on mainly visual aesthetics and explicit interactivity. Similarly, he seeks to challenge the spatial preoccupations of object-oriented art by foregrounding temporal and process-based dimensions. He explores the aesthetics of systems and processes by investigating the temporality of process-based installations, encompassing rhythm, sequence, tempo, and causality.
Mogens has exhibited at numerous national and international venues, among others, the Media Art Festival in Japan, FILE in Brazil, ZKM in Germany, the Transmediale in Germany, and the Ars Electronica in Austria. In 2024, he received the prestigious 3-year grant from The Danish Arts Foundation.
Mogens Jacobsen
Razz Ring (Hertzian Herd Healing), 2025
Singing bowls, mallets, motors, transport case, phone-sniffing electronics. Variable (min. 3 x 3 m floor space)
This work is a generative sonic sculpture that merges therapeutic singing bowls, robotic mallets, and network-sniffing electronics to create an immersive meditative environment. The system scans nearby visitors’ smartphones—without storing or revealing personal data—and transforms their hidden signals into a collective musical score played on the singing bowls. Rather than highlighting individual devices, the bowls “sing” as a united herd, resonating with the interplay of visitors’ presence.
Rooted in the hacker term “razz,” meaning “tapping into your neighbor’s phone,” the work playfully references our increasingly networked surroundings. With careful adherence to privacy regulations, it exposes the subtle tension between being observed and choosing to participate. Within Between / Worlds: Resonant Ecologies, Razz Ring occupies a liminal space between the physical and digital realms—an evocative intersection of the tangible hum of singing bowls and the unseen frequencies that connect us.
The installation complies with EU Directive 95/46/EC and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The software anonymizes the phones’ ID numbers. The system does not store any information about the phones.
