Digital art exhibition at the Jenoptik high-rise: Chris Hoffmann (Ugly Stupid Honest) | Residue Entropy Light
The new Jenoptik tangente digital art features creatures bathed in color that evoke microscopic images of tiny animals—microworlds presented as a monumental installation on the facade of the Ernst-Abbe high-rise. On view daily starting at 7:30 p.m. CEST every 30 minutes on the Jenoptik building in the heart of Jena, the City of Light. The work, conceived for the Jenoptik high-rise by UK-based artist Chris Hoffmann, known as Ugly Stupid Honest, runs from March 30 to April 12, 2026.
Digital transformation of micro-worlds
Chris Hoffmann creates abstract, color-saturated creatures whose formal language engages in a direct dialogue with the visual aesthetics of scientific microscopy techniques. The creatures’ forms evoke the organic complexity of tardigrades, radiolarians, and other microorganisms—those beings whose full morphological splendor becomes visible only through modern imaging techniques.
About Chris Hoffmann (Ugly Stupid Honest)
Chris Hoffmann is an artist born in Germany and based in the UK who specializes in creating immersive worlds and abstract, whimsical characters. His artist name, “Ugly Stupid Honest,” represents a space for unfiltered, authentic expression and an experimental approach to digital technologies.
Hoffmann’s style is characterized by playful, often creature-like motifs and a deliberately naive visual language inspired by Japanese kawaii aesthetics and pop culture. In his multi-layered works, he explores the empathetic potential of abstract forms - an approach he has applied in experimental design projects for companies such as Apple, Samsung, Google, and Microsoft. In collaboration with ZEITGUISED, his experimental films have been featured in exhibitions at Marta Herford, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and the Design Museum in Ghent.
About the exhibition
The projection can be seen daily between 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. on the hour and half hour from March 30 to April 12, 2026.
Video art at the Ernst Abbe building
Jenoptik has been hosting its own art exhibitions since 1996. Under the name “tangent” (in German “tangente”), they offer points of contact between business, technology, art, light, and perception.
In 2022, Jenoptik launched the tangente digital art exhibition series, which showcases international and national digital art at its high-rise building and headquarters, thereby bringing its commitment to art into the broader public sphere. The artworks are projected onto two facades of the high-rise building in the center of the light city of Jena, covering an area of 960 and 625 square meters respectively.
The art projection by Chris Hoffmann is Jenoptik's ninth digital art exhibition, which runs twice a year at the Ernst Abbe high-rise.
- ZEITGUISED | The Abbe Number | Autumn 2026
- NEOZOON | FragMANt TOWER | Spring 2025
- Peter Burr | ARCHITECTURE MACHINE #10 | Autumn 2024
- Lorna Mills | Living in Loops | Spring 2024
- Kurt Komell | Dance the Light | Autumn 2023
- Robert Seidel | veneer#1 und veneer#2 | Autumn 2023
- Sabrina Ratté | “Florescendi” | Spring 2023
- Julian Loscher | „Particle Animals” | Spring 2022
Thanks to the artists and our partners
For the realization we thank not only the fantastic artist but also our engaged partners who accompany and support the further development of our art engagement and make this happen: JenaKultur, Huber & Treff gallery and Robert Seidel for curating our exhibitions and the LEC laser event company for the maintenance of the video mapping facility.
Read more about the video mapping technology and equipment in our blog article Video mapping for “More Light” in the city of lights, Jena.
