Member’s of MX10 from Weimar, Germany
Bahadir Hamdemir / MX10
Stefan Kraus / MX10
The group split up in 2001 and Bahadir and Stefan continued as “MXZEHN – 25 Masterpieces per Second“. During this time, Bahadir was just working on his thesis as a media designer and choose to work on the Panasonic WJ-MX10 iconic videomixer as an instrument of artistic expression and we choose the MX-10 as our main instrument for videosynthesis.
Two years later, Hendrik Wendler coded the first version of the realtime compositing system MXWendler after the ideas of MXZEHN, which soon became our (second) most important tool for live video production.
The project Bauhausmaschine, founded in 2009 by Stefan Kraus and Marc Sauter as a spin-off from MXZEHN for the celebration of the nientieth birthday of the Bauhaus’ foundation in Weimar has a very different apporoach; that works almost exclusivly with images and symbols.
A: We found out about feedback very early in our experiments with analogue video equipment and became very interested in it. It (WJ-MX10) made the visuals more organic and performable; it freed us from using footage loops…. When Baha started to work on his thesis as a media designer, he was influence by a blend of different cultures, major influences from the like of William S. Burroughs, Flusser, Philip.K.Dick and Joey Beltram. With this urge to look for the hidden aethetic inside the machine.
And that clearly came from his experiences, not studies. But during his study, Baha made usable through a Duchampian style of Readymade, and he had been doing the research during his thesis on kind of a synthesizer.
Q: What did you studied to get so into VJing and Mapping?
A: Baha studied Media Design and Stefan, Architecture. They both went to the Bauhaus-University Weimar. They both came from a different direction, and when they meet, the point where in the realtime video performances, and it was then where they started to intuitively play with space from using video-projectors.
We soon realised that pretty soon, that the projected image can become something different than an “image“, once you melt it with form, in the environment. That would only leaves the familiar rectangular presentation behind.
We started to build spatial structures for the purpose to only carry light(video), to transform spaces into a artistic simulation.
Nonetheless the same criteria also apply to every final exams; it has to be unique and of course in a certain artistic and intellectual quality – it was not a problem ; )
Stefan later organised several projects and classes around different aspects of Vjing at Bauhaus-University, which were visited by students of architecture, design and the arts.
Q: Where are you from? and where are you based?
A: We both come from southern part of Germany (although Baha has Turkish roots) and went to Weimar to study. We founded MXZEHN in Weimar, which has been a quite astonishing little global village in the last 15 years. There are a lot of crazy, creative people around, and it is a great place to develop new ideas. The city has a long history as cultural hot spot and you’re pretty far away from mainstream out here 
Q: Did Techno influence you to VJ or other sound music from else where?
We worked with a lot of electronic artists, but we also like to play with Jazz musicians a lot! In the end we perform with all kinds of music(good), but the timelessness attitude of electronic nights, opens up much more perspective for experimentation and improvisation then a Band gig, as spatially speaking.
MXZEHN works mainly with abstract structures and compositions as we believe, that there are a way to many mediastreams out there: that pile message over message and try to manipulate the audience. Even as we may ourselves enjoy some of these streams, we see it as our job to work with the alternatives… Images, that leave the people olone, maybe just by not working the usual “image“ way.