Next-generation operation systems fascinate their users with new graphic effects, liquid animations, unclouded transparencies, striking drop shadows and with truly-colored buttons.

These interfaces especially in the last years have not only become very colorful — also the semantic layer has widened: depiction of promises and utopias, of progress and lifestyle have joined the metaphors (indeed necessary) to machine-interact.

johannes p osterhoff's works shows that by now it has become possible to paint entire pictures with this additional visual information. He thus rises the question of the significance and values of such systems.

For the digital paintings of this project johannes p osterhoff only used elements from Aqua the graphical user interface from OS X by Apple — among them scrollbars, menu-elements, buttons to close or minimize windows — to paint with these small digital fragments over-sized images for real space.

His project Aqua was initiated in 2005. Pictures of the Aqua series have been exhibited at the European Media Art Festival 2006 in Osnabrück, Germany. ABC Gallery in Moscow presented new works and one classic, c-base space station in Berlin recently showed Aqua Anthology.