Günther Werner Berkus was an artist, musician and film director from

Cork "Cork" or "CORK" may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Stopper (plug), or "cork", a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container *** Wine cork an item to seal or reseal wine Places Ireland * ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. He was born on 20 April 1951 in

Münchberg Münchberg is a small town in Upper Franconia (Bavaria), Germany. It is sometimes referred to as the ''Textile Town of Bavaria''. Its sister city is Jefferson City, Missouri, United States. Geography The town districts History The first set ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. As a teenager, he studied

pharmacology Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...

at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (, until 2023 , WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of study in 15 departments, it is Germany's ...

but rapidly switched to music and art. During that period, he discovered a love of

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

and

analog synthesizer An analog synthesizer () is a synthesizer that uses Analogue electronics, analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a var ...

s which led him to playing with such people as

Ralf Hütter Ralf Hütter (born 20 August 1946) is a German musician and composer best known as the lead singer and keyboardist of Kraftwerk, which he founded with Florian Schneider in 1970, and became the only consistent member of the band (although he brief ...

and

Florian Fricke Florian Fricke (23 February 1944 – 29 December 2001) was a German musician who started his professional career with electronic music, using the Moog synthesizer, and was a founding member of the Krautrock band Popol Vuh. Early life Born on 23 ...

. In the mid-1970s, he moved to Ireland where he made his home. He had been involved in contemporary art, performance art, computer graphics and fractal music production. He was one of the early pioneers of

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

in Cork during the late 1980s/early 1990s with his unique series of Synergy workshops and concerts. He also participated in the Soundworks series of concerts, held at the Triskel Arts Centre and later in its successor, Intermedia. In 1995 under the name of ''Synergy Media Labs'', he was one of the first people to start

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

web hosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web ho ...

in the south-west of Ireland. Later he became involved in developing and curating the Bryce online galleries of 3D art works and was an internationally recognised innovator in the field of Bryce and MojoWorld image production. In 2017, he was awarded the Pioneering Musical Practice award at the IndieCork film festival.

Personal life

He was related to the venture capitalist, Dave Berkus, designer

Nate Berkus Nathan Jay Berkus (born September 17, 1971) is an American interior designer, author, and television personality. He runs the Chicago interior design firm Nate Berkus Associates and was a regularly featured guest on '' The Oprah Winfrey Show'', o ...

, and Josh Berkus of

Software in the Public Interest Software in the Public Interest, Inc. (SPI) is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization domiciled in New York State formed to help other organizations create and distribute free open-source software and open-source hardware. Anyone is eligible to ...

. He died on 11 September 2020, following decades of living with

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

. In 2021, the album ''"Still, Life - Cork’s Lockdown Sounds"'' by a collective of Cork independent musicians, was dedicated to his memory.

External links

Official website

The Cork City Gamelan
*

References

1951 births 2020 deaths German emigrants to Ireland Irish multimedia artists Irish performance artists Musicians from Bavaria Artists from County Cork Musicians from County Cork {{Ireland-artist-stub