“I have remembrances of yours I have longed long to redeliver”
A video installation with works of Mark Jeffery, Judd Morrissey and Rune Peitersen
Installation view - from left to right: Rune Peitersen, Judd Morrissey, Mark Jefferey
Installation view - Rune Peitersen
Installation view - from left to right: Rune Peitersen, Judd Morrissey, Mark Jefferey
Rune Peitersen – Looking at Seeing
The retinal image is an image in a mathematical sense; it is a projection or a mapping. The retinal image is not an image in the sense of picture – or, if it is, this is entirely accidental. How it looks, or how it reads, plays no role in its performance of its neuropsychological job description. Once we appreciate that the retinal image isn’t something that we see, we lose a grip even on what it means to say that it’s upside down. Upside-down, one must ask relative to the tasks faced by the nervous system?
[…] Again, we don’t experience the retinal image; we don’t experience any image, in that sense. We experience the world.
Alva Noë, Out of our heads. Why you are not your brain, and other lessons from
the biology of consciousness, 2009
At Ellen de Bruijne Projects, the 3rd and final installment of Rune Peitersen’s project, Saccadic Sightings will be on view. Last year’s presentation was focused on the relation between art and science, and the position of these two disciplines in relation to our ideas on the perception of reality. This year, Rune Peitersen, goes back to his initial question it all started from: What do we see, when we look at something.
In Saccadic Sightings this question is investigated already in a very strict way. But Peitersen is also interested in going beyond, to the question of: how do we create an opinion, how do we create meaning?
To further investigate different ways of approaching these questions, Peitersen invited a number of artists on 21st of July to reflect on what it is or means to “see”.
It will be an evening of fascinating, touching, rational, inspiring presentations, musings and performances in which questions will be raised – and possibly answered – about how artists look at and see the world, and how they use this process in their work.
Invited artists: Gwenneth Boelens, Katrin Korfmann, Roland Schimmel, Martijn Schuppers, Rein Jelle Terpstra en Ruth Verraes.
Opening: 16 July 17:00 – 19:00 hrs
Exhibition: 16 July – 20 Augustus
During this summer show, the gallery will have special opening times:
Thursday to Saturday 11:00 – 18:00 hrs
Special event: 21 July doors open: 19:30 hrs. Starts at 20:00 hrs. sharp!
Saccadic Sightings is sponsored by Fonds BKvB, Stephen Oliver Associates and The Arts & Genomics Institute
Installation view: Looking at Seeing: Lightmast, Looking at Seeing: Tree, Manifest Gaze: Sky, Manifest Gaze: Path
Looking at Seeing: Lightmast (detail)
Looking at Seeing: Tree (detail), 2011
Installation view: Homunculus 11_35, Homunculus 02_02, Homunculus 02_01
Installation view: Manifest Gaze: Path, Looking at Seeing: Lightmast, Looking at Seeing: Tree
Installation view: Looking at Seeing: Tree, Manifest Gaze: Path, Manifest Gaze: Sky
Rune Peitersen, A Tree in the Forest: Ophelia 02, 2011
Rune Peitersen, Observer Effect: A Tree in the Forest, 2011
Installation view: Video installation Looking Out, Observer Effect: A Tree in the Forest
Rune Peitersen, Homunculus 02_01, 2011
Rune Peitersen, Homunculus 02_02, 2011
Rune Peitersen, Homunculus 11_35, 2011
Rune Peitersen, Manifest Gaze: Sky, 2011
Rune Peitersen, Looking at Seeing: Lightmast, 2011
Rune Peitersen, Looking at Seeing: Tree, 2011
Rune Peitersen, Observer Effect: A Tree in the Forest (detail), 2011
Rune Peitersen, Observer Effect: A Tree in the Forest (detail), 2011
On Saturday July 21st the event ‘Looking at Seeing’ took place in the gallery. Amidst the exhibition a number of invited artists spoke about their work, inspiration and ideas. The starting-point was a question posed by me on what it means ‘to see’.
The talks were enlightening, touching, inspiring and thought-provoking. Every artist approached the question and subject-matter from his/her own specific angle, and so helped to create an extraordinary evening. I am deeply grateful to the artists invited and I hope visitors of this site will take the time to look at their talks (in Dutch). The speakers were: Gwenneth Boelens, Roland Schimmel, Martijn Schuppers, Rein Jelle Terpstra en Ruth Verraes.
Intro, Rune Peitersen – Looking at Seeing, Ellen de Bruijne Projects 2011
So it must be a stone
Ruth Verraes – Looking at Seeing, Ellen de Bruijne Projects 2011
To read Ruth’s presentation please go here: tijdschriftterras.nl/altijd
Blijken en lijken
Martijn Schuppers – Looking at Seeing, Ellen de Bruijne Projects 2011
Negative rather than truth
Gwenneth Boelens – Looking at Seeing, Ellen de Bruijne Projects 2011
7 fragmenten
Roland Schimmel – Looking at Seeing, Ellen de Bruijne Projects 2011
To read Roland’s presentation please download here: 6 fragmenten(21.7.11)
Terugkijken
Rein Jelle Terpstra – Looking at Seeing, Ellen de Bruijne Projects 2011
Catalogue False Focus with an essay by Saskia Monshouwer (.pdf)
Opening, saturday April 16 2011, 16.00 hours
nestruimte.nl/en/projects/false-focus
Exhibition, April 17 – May 29
False Focus is based on the idea that our senses and they way they are translated by the brain into an image of reality does not provide us with a reliable idea of reality.
For The artists of False Focus the senses and its translations are reason to provide us with alternative realities, manifested in video’s, photo’s, paintings and installations.
Artist talk, 26 mei 2011, 20.00 uur
Saskia Monshouwer, Rune Peitersen and Bradley Pitts speak about their work and the exhibition.
Lezing, 11 mei 2011, 20.00 uur
Raymond van Ee, professor neuropsychologie aan de Universiteit Utrecht, spreekt over de invloed van ons brein op de perceptie.
Rondleiding, 22 mei 2011, 16.00 uur
Eelco van der Lingen leidt rond, vertelt over het werk en gaat in gesprek met het publiek. In informele sfeer wordt besproken wat er te zien is en waar het om draait bij False Focus
MINI SYMPOSIUM July 8t h Ellen de Bruijne projects
Saccadic Sightings: Einstein & Bohr, Rune Peitersen
Initiated in 2008, Saccadic Sightings began as a study of visual perception. Using a Mobile Eye, a scientific eye tracking device, Peitersen was able to film his field of view while simultaneously capturing the exploratory movements of his eye. He was interested in the ‘raw’ visual input captured by the retina before it was interpreted and processed into experience by the brain. Underlying this project were questions raised by quantum mechanics concerning e.g. the Uncertainty Principle and whether or not it is possible to speak of a world separate from our observation of it.
During his research Peitersen started looking into the way in which we construct our reality. Besides the physiological and psychological aspects of perception, scientific paradigms determine our view of the world. Peitersen became intrigued by how outdated but popular paradigms have developed into inflexible dogmas. The materialistic dualism of Rene Descartes, which presupposes a strict division of mind and matter, is such a dogma, which although discredited decennia ago by quantum physics, by thinkers such as Einstein and Bohr and more recently by neurological research, still remains the most commonly accepted and widely held world view. This raises the questions of why such a world view persists and what can be done to substitute it with a more adequate construction. Furthermore, Peitersen became convinced that it is art which shapes our understanding of reality. By formulating questions about perception, by visualizing conceptual constructions and making these constructions manifest in the world, art plays a much more fundamental part in the construction of our collective reality than we usually realize.
The issues raised will be the starting point of a public discussion in the gallery on Thursday July 8th in which Robert Zwijnenberg (Prof. Art history, University of Leiden and founding Director of The Arts & Genomics Centre), André Klukhuhn (scientist and philosopher), Saskia Monshouwer (curator and anthropologist), Mariska van den Berg (curator SKOR), Voebe de Gruyter (artist), Huib Haye van der Werf (curator NAi), Anne Kienhuis (postdoc researcher at RIVM), Tamuna Chabashvili and Adi Hollander (artists PSWAR.org), Laura Schuster (phd student UvA, Imagined Futures research group) and others will participate.
Click here for biographical information of the speakers and participants.
The questions/statements I wish to reflect upon are:
- Why does the Cartesian construction of reality still exert so much influence and what are the consequences thereof for how we think about science and art?
- What would it take to destabilize this worldview and replace it with another, more adequate construction?
- Which part might art play in this? Is it not so that art in particular is capable of shaping our idea about reality? And possibly functions as a precursor to the constructions as they are formulated by science and technology?
- And, if so, which role does science play within the artistic domain. What sort of transformations are possible?
Program:
19.30
Doors open
20.00
Mariska van den Berg (freelance curator | editor) gives a brief introduction.
Mariska van den Berg – Introduction from Rune Peitersen on Vimeo.
Rune reflects upon dualism as perpetuated by the movies The Matrix and Avatar.
Click here for the accompanying powerpoint presentation.
Rune Peitersen – The Cartesian Theatre of The Matrix and Avatar from Rune Peitersen on Vimeo.
20.15-21.30
The speakers:
André Klukhuhn
The joint evolution of consciousness and space“(…) concerning the construction of the world by our consciousness. The people of antiquity, the middle ages, and of the renaissance experienced the world differently from us.” According to Klukhuhn, our (developing) consciousness and our experience of space and time are closely connected (Kant supplemented by Darwin).
Andre Klukhuhn – The joint evolution of consciousness and space from Rune Peitersen on Vimeo.
In her weekly column in the Dutch NRC Handelsblad, Maria Barnas contemplates the difficulties of grasping Einstein’s theory of relativity and how Andre Klukhuhn’s lecture at the minisymposium made her come closer to an understanding of the fourth dimension.
http://weblogs.nrc.nl/cultuurblog/2010/07/18/cs-maria-barnas-aanhikken/
Saskia Monshouwer
Saskia Monshouwer will present her recent essay Kunst, context, wetenschap. Mogelijke consequenties van het denken (over zien) (Art, context, science. (Over looking) the possible consequences for thinking) , written for the occasion. During this evening’s discussion Monshouwer will examine the following position: Due to the relation between both society and the public, art is able to mediate between science and society, and possibly destabilize an accepted worldview.
Saskia Monshouwer – Kunst, context, wetenschap. Mogelijke consequenties van het denken (over zien) from Rune Peitersen on Vimeo.
Rune Peitersen
Contact – Art as the Outer Limits of the Universe – what is the function of art? Is art capable of shaping our idea about reality? And does it function as a precursor to the construction of reality?
Click here for the accompanying powerpoint presentation.
Rune Peitersen – Contact-Art as the Outer Limits of the Universe from Rune Peitersen on Vimeo.
Robert Zwijnenberg
Robert Zwijnenberg brings together art, humanities en science so that they may learn from each other. According to Zwijnenberg, this interaction can produce new forms of art as well as new theories and methodologies. This evening he will reflect upon the role of science within the artistic domain: What sort of transformations are possible?
Robert Zwijnenberg from Rune Peitersen on Vimeo.
21.30 – 23.00
The guests and public are involved in the discussion.
Moderated by Mariska and Rune.
Texts ‘Einstein & Bohr‘ and ‘Contact – Art as the outer limits of the Universe‘
Ellen de Bruijne Projects
Rozengracht 207 A
1016 LZ Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
The Mini Symp
osium was made possible with the support of The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture.
Observing Uncertainty - Underpass, 200x150 cm, inkjet on paper, 2010
In Dolores Rune Peitersen will be showing the most recent installment, Einstein & Bohr, from his ongoing project Saccadic Sightings from July 3rd to August 28th.
Initiated in 2008, Saccadic Sightings began as a study of visual perception. Using a Mobile Eye, a scientific eye tracking device, Peitersen was able to film his field of view while simultaneously capturing the exploratory movements of his eye. He was interested in the ‘raw’ visual input captured by the retina before it was interpreted and processed into experience by the brain. Underlying this project were questions raised by quantum mechanics concerning e.g. the Uncertainty Principle and whether or not it is possible to speak of a world separate from our observation of it.
During his research Peitersen started looking into the way in which we construct our reality. Besides the physiological and psychological aspects of perception, scientific paradigms determine our view of the world. Peitersen became intrigued by how outdated but popular paradigms have developed into inflexible dogmas. The materialistic dualism of Rene Descartes, which presupposes a strict division of mind and matter, is such a dogma, which although discredited decennia ago by quantum physics, by thinkers such as Einstein and Bohr and more recently by neurological research, still remains the most commonly accepted and widely held world view. This raises the questions of why such a world view persists and what can be done to substitute it with a more adequate construction. Furthermore, Peitersen became convinced that it is art which shapes our understanding of reality. By formulating questions about perception, by visualizing conceptual constructions and making these constructions manifest in the world, art plays a much more fundamental part in the construction of our collective reality than we usually realize.
These are the considerations underlying the most recent work. In one image we see the track travelled by the searching eye. It is superimposed on a video still of an urban landscape: a snapshot, out of focus but still implying an overview. In the second work, a combination of several images, the overview is abandoned in favor of fragmented visual acuity also referring to the passage of time. Both works are linked to the text Einstein & Bohr.
The issues raised will be the starting point of a public discussion in the gallery on Thursday July 8th in which Robert Zwijnenberg (Prof. Art history, University of Leiden and founding Director of The Arts & Genomics Centre), André Klukhuhn (scientist and philosopher), Saskia Monshouwer (curator and anthropologist), Mariska van den Berg (curator SKOR), Voebe de Gruyter (artist), Huib Haye van der Werf (curator NAi), Anne Kienhuis (postdoc researcher at RIVM), Tamuna Chabashvili and Adi Hollander (artists PSWAR.org), Laura Schuster (phd student UvA, Imagined Futures research group) and others will participate.
Click here for biographical information of the speakers and participants.
Program can be found here (English) and here (Dutch).
Texts ‘Einstein & Bohr‘ and ‘Contact – Art as the outer limits of the Universe‘
To this show Vesna Madzoski wrote a text for Rhizome.org, “Black Hole of Vision: On Rune Peitersen’s Saccadic Sightings”
Saccadic Sightings is generously sponsored by The Arts&Genomics Centre, Leiden, www.artsgenomics.org,, Stephen Oliver Associates, London, www.s-oliver-associates.com and The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, www.fondsbkvb.nl
Observer Effect #Underpass Sequence, 60 Lightjet photos, 2010
Observer Effect - Underpass Sequence, Installation view
Observing Uncertainty - Underpass, Installation view
Read ‘Divided Landscape’, a text on the exhibition by Mariska van den Berg.
Various installation views of works from the series ‘Observing Uncertainty’ in GIST Gallery :
CHArt presentation
A video of my presentation at the CHArt conference – courtesy of Carl Smith: Chart2008_Rune_Peitersen
CHArt Conference
The CHArt Conference in London was very good. I don’t consider myself an academic, but it is interesting to get a peak inside the academic world on occassion. A lot of interesting papers were presented, and my own presentation on the project was well received. I hope to be able to provide a video of it soon. The paper I presented can be downloaded below.
CHArt
CHArt Conference 6-7 of Nov. Birkbeck University, London
Discovery08
A great party at NEMO. There was an unfortunate mixup with the videos for my 20PK presentation, but no big deal. Just in case, you can see the slideshow and the videos here:
Slideshow (.pps)
Video1 (.mpg 20MB)
Video2 (.mpg 20MB)
Discovery08 26th of September in Nemo, Amsterdam
