The Narrative 2006

 Posted by Rune on 04/05/2006
May 042006
 

A digital slideshow by Rune Peitersen, 2006

In my works I look at the relationship between what we see and how this information is elaborated upon by our mind. The imprint or interpretation of the information, which reaches our consciousness as conscious thought, is an amalgamation of the information presented and ones own intellectual, emotional and physical baggage.

The Narrative is a computer projection that tries to question the historical value of personal memories.

The slideshow consists of four frames on a black background, projected by a single beamer or presented on a single widescreen monitor. Each frame represents a time interval during a 24 hour day (1st frame 6:00-11:59, 2nd frame 12:00-17:59, 3rd frame 18:00-23:59, 4th frame 24:00-5:59). Each frame has a corresponding folder containing photos taken within the specific timeframe. The photos are taken from the artist’s archive of digital photos from 2002-present, and is continually updated.

The photos are projected at random to the designated frame, thus creating representations of full days. The time a photo stays in a frame is also randomly selected between 3 preset timeslots, i.e. 3, 5 or 8 seconds. The four frames resemble a cartoon, and are easily ‘read’ in the same way. The photos are all black&white, both to allow easier reading as well as to suggest that they represent the past.

The brain’s eagerness to act as a ‘void-filler’ (looking for, creating or applying meaning to input, no matter how disparate this may be), ensures that the viewer quickly establishes associative links between some or all of the photos in a given sequence. These can be of a formal, structural or emotional nature depending on the images, the sequence and the viewer. However, because of the constant changing of the photos, the associations or narratives are terminated or transformed almost as soon as they appear, and due to the amount of possible permutations (>100.000.000), in effect lost forever.

I would like the viewer to question whether his own ‘memory archive’ isn’t, in fact also in a constant state of flux, and if that’s the case, how then do we determine the veracity and validity of our own memory as well as the narratives and decisions based on personal historical events.
click here for a video impression (requires quicktime)

Programmed using Pure Data version 0.38.4-extended-RC8, GEM ver: 0.90 http://puredata.org
This must be installed in order to view the slideshow. At present the slideshow is app. 33 Mb.

Thanks to Klaas van Gorkum for help with Pd.

Realized with the support of The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Architechture and Design.

All photos in the slideshow are copyright of Rune Peitersen.

Forest 2006

 Posted by Rune on 04/05/2006
May 042006
 

a revised installation of this work, Peripheral Panorama, can be found here


A video installation by Rune Peitersen 2006
2 DVDs (left and right), 14:00 min. loop
DVD-PAL
©Rune Peitersen 2006Forest is a dual dvd projection installation based on the visual experience of walking through a dark forest.

It was filmed simultaneously on two cameras. The cameras were attached to a custom-built device which allowed them to be held in one hand while walking, each at an angle of 40 degrees to the walking direction. At this angle the cameras outer field of vision corresponds with that of a humans stereoscopic vision (62 degrees to each side of the nose). However, as the cameras fields of view don’t overlap in front, the normal field of visual attention is left ‘blank’.

The footage was shot while walking through a dark forest, and thereafter edited to enhance the shadow/light contrast and eliminate the colour nuances, rendering it duochrome. The colour green is ambivalent in both suggesting something organic and toxic. It is also the colour with the narrowest field of view to the human eye, making it more difficult for the viewer to get a grasp of the imagery.

In the installation the two movies are projected onto two screens hanging in a darkened room at an angle similar to the cameras when the footage was shot. The viewer is theoretically able to encompass both screens in his field of vision, but to do that he has to look between the screens into the dark, and consequently won’t be able to focus on any detail. However, due to the synchronous movement of the movies, he will experience moving ‘forward’ through the imagery. Even if he chooses to turn and pay more attention to one of the screens, the other screen will always linger at the edge of his field of vision.

The imagery is stylized in a way as to provide a sensation of moving through ‘something’ static, yet teeming with movement made up by the way the silhouettes of the forest interact. This creates a situation in which the viewer is constantly trying to control his focus, yet at the same time redirecting his field of vision and attention to ‘something at the corner of his eye’.

The narrative is in the movement of the cameras, the imagery of the shadows and the movement of the viewer as his (sub-) consciousness tries to make sense of the visual input.

click here for a video impression (requires quicktime, 16Mb)

screenshots from Forest paired horizontally
3d installation views
Technical and spatial requirements2 beamers
2 screens capable of projection back
2 DVD playersA dark room. The minimum size requirements depend on the desired size of the screens. E.g. if the screens are 3m wide, the room must be at least 7x4m. For screens half the size, 1,5m, the minimum requirements would be appr. 3,5x2m (see installation diagram).
Although these minimum measurements would enable the installation to be built, it would be preferable if the final space were somewhat larger than the exact minimum requirements.

FIRE 2005

 Posted by Rune on 04/05/2005
May 042005
 

Exhibition “Aus Niederlande. Videowerke”, Zero.project in Berlin 2007

Screening at Optica 2006, the Gijón International Festival of Video, Spain

14:32 min., no sound, DVD PAL – ©Rune Peitersen 2005

“Ultimately reality exists only as projected light. We are stages on light’s path. The whole of technology is a late cult of the sun.”
Paul Virilio

The video Fire is inspired by the Cave analogy in Plato’s Republic. The video is shot in a manner which make the images appear as one could imagine the shadowy images on the wall in the cave appear to the prisoners in the original story.

The video consists of seven 2-minute fragments of ambiguous imagery and suggestive narrational elements. The visual and narrative information is reduced to a point where the viewer has to engage actively in applying significance to the imagery before him. Rather than deciphering a given narrative made up of recognizable elements, he is forced to apply meaning to the imagery before he can engage in creating a narrative.
In doing so, his own position as a viewer becomes intricately linked to establishing meaning to the viewed.

Credits:
Actors: Iris Bruning, Camilla Eliasen, Bojan Fajfric, Huib Haye van der Werf
Direction/editing/production: Rune Peitersen

Cross 2005

 Posted by Rune on 04/02/2005
Feb 042005
 

‘Rune Peitersen’, Ellen de Bruijne Projects 2005
Screnning at the 10th Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin November 15th to 27th 2005, Paris

Cross003, DVD, 4. min. loop, 2004

“In Cross003, an image resembling a cross is seen, first as a seemingly tangible manifestation – a glowing or burning cross – but secondly as a crevasse in a curtain in a window. The cross consists purely of light, and is only manifest as an interpretation of dark surroundings, lack of visual information. When people – shadows – appear and block the light, the cross momentarily disappears and the scene changes character and meaning. In the act of trying to decipher and categorize the changing imagery the viewer must engage his own views on voyeurism and iconography.”

- catalogue text, 10th Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin

Island 2003

 Posted by Rune on 04/05/2002
May 042002
 

Translocation – Island was a group show by the Translocation Group.

The Translocation Group was a short-lived collaboration between the artists Maja von Hanno, Rune Peitersen, Bojan Fajfric, Tim Monaghan, Sanja Medic, Huib Haye van der Werf, Klaas van Gorkum, Iratxe Iajo and Femke van Wachem. The group was set up to see if it were possible to create meaningful interaction between artists whose work apparently had nothing in common. The collaboration resulted in a number of projects and an exhibition in Stichting Outline, Amsterdam.

***under construction***

Installation view

Installation view

Growth II 2000

 Posted by Rune on 04/05/2000
May 042000
 

Growth II, 30 min., DVD PAL, sound, 2000