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The pack (das Rudel), 2023, by Berlin-based artist Carsten Becker was first shown in the exhibition Roundtrip – Fluidum #2 at Fabbrica Del Vapore, Milano/IT: a dense assemblage of bottles arranged in an acute triangle on the floor. In the flow of the arrangement, the bottle type and matte, monochrome coloring changes from dark green tones through brown to golden beige. Becker's work stands in the context of examining National Socialist crimes. The bottles stem from his research into the standardization of everyday objects, inseparably connected to military uses.

At first glance, standards and art seem to be mutually exclusive, as one is considered the epitome of structure and reliability, while the other is regarded as ruleless creation. The work series DIN by Berlin-based artist Carsten Becker is an occasion to look at standardisation in technology and society and to ask about the influence of standards for the people. A selection of works by Becker was shown in February and March 2022 in the exhibition Norm in Chemnitz, Germany. Anika Reineke locates his works in the history of artistic approaches to repetition, pattern and seriality.

Conversation with curator Harald F. Theiss about the series RAL and DIN, held in the context of the exhibitions Edition #5 and Epilogue at Haunt Berlin.

Carsten Becker condenses the aspects of standardization for his DIN series, in which functional and aesthetic concerns meet. Above all, two standards meet here: Becker paints DIN objects in RAL colors and photographs them. In Becker’s photographs, a strange effect presents itself: The proportions seem to change, the medium of representation pushes into the foreground and creates an alienation. The objects and the colors are removed from the sphere of use.

For his series "Agfacolor", Carsten Becker focuses on moments that make it impossible for photographs to disguise their voice. The artist presents image sections from color photos he discovered in archives, taken by soldiers of German propaganda troops. He closes in on details and the enhancement lends an aesthetic quality to the ageing marks, the tinting and scratches of the film material – a quality beyond the original photographer’s control.

Is it possible to cope with loss or to process specific repressed memories by reviving repressed color worlds, the lost worlds of images? Carsten Beckerʼs works are about the "absence" of something, about voids.

The interview with neuroscientist Ina Filla, PhD, explores the concept of transgenerational trauma, focusing especially on the Holocaust. It explains how traumatic experiences can be transmitted across generations through epigenetic mechanisms, socialization, and bonding. Filla outlines the biological basis of these transmission pathways based on current research, including animal studies, and discusses the complex psychological and societal impacts of inherited trauma.

Utility objects do not come by their colors randomly, they are chosen according to standards. In Germany, the RAL standard sets the norm, a collection of colors that meets the requirements of public authorities, the military and industry. In his work, artist Carsten Becker is concerned with the gaps and continuities in this collection. It displays a microcosm of German history.

Becker’s main interest lies in the measurability of human activity, with its potential market value and economic significance. Digital exhibitionism – the detailed display of our lives – simplifies access to, and regulation of, human behaviour. The pattern of Becker’s work ethic emerges like a fingerprint – yet only he has an emotional connection to it.

As a self-experiment, Becker compiled his own data trail—phone bills, bank statements, emails, and browser history—into a database. He assigned each data type unique symbols and visual modes, which the program merges into a constantly changing, three-dimensional data portrait: a dynamic reflection of his evolving digital shadow.