ART OR NOT ART?
This question was also posed by the German artist Alexander Nickl, who developed the KD-L47. A seemingly technical, box-like device which might here be able to help further. One switches on the KD-L47, points the ‘light lens’ at a picture, an object or an installation and waits a while. A little later a green lamp lights up with the words YES ART or a red one with the words NO ART. I was allowed to try out the device together with the artist – with somewhat surprising results. But is the KD-L47 itself now a form of art? In order to answer this question, the device was produced again, cloned so to speak, and then confronted with itself. Which light would have lit up?

Günther Oberhollenzer, Von der Liebe zur Kunst, Innsbruck, 2014, p. 105