“The journey from pixel to sand grain”
Welcome to the Sand-Media Website
The Sand-Media platform presents a range of artistic projects on this portal. Its uniquely developed visual language aims to make vulnerability and impermanence visible and tactile as essential human qualities. The process fosters both personal artistic reflection and shared experiences – open to participants from all walks of life.
Ephemeral Image Worlds – visible, tangible, transient
To create these ephemeral visual surfaces, Sand-Media uses a custom-designed A4/A3 laser printer that projects transfer images onto delicate, sandy mineral surfaces as well as moist earth panels. These so-called Earth-Prints can be dried, fixed, and displayed – or intentionally dissolved with water as part of a ceremonial conclusion.
Beyond the Perfect Image
The sand images – both as individual portraits (stills) and frame-by-frame animations – and the earth panels visualize a visual language beyond the perfect imagery of our information-driven society. They do not seek permanence, but rather open a space for transcendent visual moments, meditative personal artworks, and large-scale community installations – all of which culminate in a public or private dissolution ritual. The sand is then returned to a shared container to be reused in the next cycle of images.
From Print to Trace: Creating in Sand
Sand-Media understands this process as a form of meditative practice. It begins with the digital printing phase and continues with hands-on creative elaboration. Traces left in the sand or earth become personal visual commentaries, enriched with pigments applied after the initial print. The result is a fusion of digital content with fragile physical materials like sand and pigment – forming a unified aesthetic expression.
Touring Projects
The first touring project, “Every Person Has a Face”, was realized in 2015 in collaboration with Danish photographer Martin Thaulow. The goal was to create interactive art projects that brought together staff, supporters, and displaced persons into a shared experience of community. Five resulting sand-image installations were realized in different locations across North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and are documented on this site.
Following this, the “Partnership in Sand” (PiSP) series was developed – each project involving several hundred participants from all sectors of society. This series has already been successfully realized over 20 times.
Every person has a face, a story to tell – and plays a vital role in shaping a society that embraces diversity.
