Karl Schulze

In Thermal Memory I explore the tension between presence and disappearance, and the traces we leave behind through acts of care, patience, and attention. Created out of a fear of forgetting and of being forgotten, shaped by deeply personal experiences that marked the year 2024.

The one hour performance centers on the act of heating a one square meter section of the floor using only my body heat. From a bird’s eye perspective, a heat sensitive camera captures this invisible process: the slow accumulation of warmth, the shift in temperature, and the gradual cooling that follows. The resulting three hour video, accompanied by a series of photographic stills, records both the effort of generating heat and the long return to stillness, revealing the quiet persistence of energy in space.

During the performance, the floor temperature rose by about three to four degrees Celsius and stayed warm for several hours, leaving a visible thermal imprint long after my body had moved away. The video is projected onto the same one square meter area, reactivating the gesture and transforming the physical trace into a visible memory. The photographs extend this gesture further, freezing moments of warmth and presence that would otherwise remain unseen.

Thermal Memory reflects on how even brief encounters can leave enduring marks on our surroundings and within one another. By translating body heat into visual and temporal residue, the work reveals how energy, care, and memory intertwine. It asks how we are remembered, how we remember, and what remains when the warmth fades.