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under the same sun
project. since 2017.
in collaboration with Dico Kruijsse
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As the earth moves around the sun, the sum of shifting light conditions changes the way we experience a place. To capture this experience, to catch light in space, we make use of a light sensitive process called cyanotype. An early photography process known to create the first ‘blueprints’ in architecture.
As a blueprint, the cyanotype was simply a medium of reproduction. under the same sun focuses on its trans-disciplinary nature as a tool to study light and as a medium to visualize architectural spaces. To do so, the blueprint is material and method. The building itself functions here as the tool, as the ‘dark chamber’, in which the light-sensitive surface is exposed to light. The blueprints developed by the building are camera-less photograms in scale 1:1 including the immediate vicinity via shadowing structures and reflecting windows.
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(05-09 2019)
a collective blueprint.
Het Niewe Instituut. Rotterdam. NL
with participation of
Marijke Appelman, Martijn Konings, Zhou Junsheng, Liu Chao-tze, Annick van Santen, Paul Peeters, Marie-Antoinette van der Gaag, Alexandra Shilova, Eelco Roelsma, Juul Barnard, Alexander Pachkov, Bogdan Grushin, Lea Alapini, Ariane Trümper, Jean van Wijk, Sina Hensel, Ellen Smit, Lucy Draai, Marco Apereti, David Wills, Marilotte van Lent. (images by Zhou Junsheng, Dico Kruijsse and Carolin Lange)
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(04 2019)
second round. art-in-architecture competition.
concept: ‚binar-blau‘ (version b).cyanotype wall-painting.
Gebäude 200. General Fellgiebel Kaserne Pöcking.
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(06-12 2017)
second prize. art-in-architecture competition.
concept: ‘lichtpause’. cyanotype in wall developed in situ.
Humboldt Forum Berlin DE.
(copyrights: Humboldt Forum Berlin)
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open office landscape
project. 2016.
a study of the light conditions of the Arctic Summer.
Biological Science Station Kilpisjärvi FI
In the framework of the artist-in-residence program ars bioarctica, the project open office landscape explored strategies to measure the light of the Arctic summer. The nature reserve around the biological science station at Kilpisjärvi is part of a long-term climate change research. It also accommodates the Kilpisjärvi Atmospheric Imaging Receiver Array, which is used for atmospheric, near-Earth space and astronomical research. The residency enables invited artists to work in and with the nature reserve. It offers laboratory space as well as equipment to use for artistic purposes.
With open office landscape the landscape around Kilpisjärvi transformed into an open workspace to study light on different locations and during different times of day and night.
To do so, the process of the cyanotype and simple Do-It-Yourself spectrometers were in use.
The English scientist Sir John Herschel (1792-1871) first published the light-sensitive process of the cyanotype in 1842. He is known for his contributions in astronomy and chemistry. Although his chemical research had great impact on early photography, he had little to no interest in making pictures. Instead he was interested in the light-sensitive process itself and used it to study properties of light and chemicals (1). The cyanotype, also known as blue or sun print, develops through light different intensities of the pigment Prussian blue. Unlike other early photographic processes, the cyanotype consists of two natural, non-toxic components and with proper handling suitable for applications in a natural landscape (2).
In Herschel’s time, the cyanotype process found only little application in the field of art and photography. Only a few scientific instruments picked up the cyanotype as a print medium, like the Jordan sunshine meter (3). In the 1880s however architecture offices discovered the process to produce the first ‚blue prints’ of ground and elevation plans.
Open office landscape revisited Herschel’s approach to study light through strategies of the online DIY culture. At a place like the Arctic Circle, one becomes aware of every man-made object one brings along. Therefore the DIY spectrometers were formed with material gathered at the station: an old CD, tape and a parcel cardboard box. Daily notes on the colours of the sky accompanied spectrographs captured by a self-made filter lens. Cyanotypes created by the Arctic light were also shaped by the location itself and its spatial, temporal and ecological properties.
Open office landscape pictures Kilpisjärvi as a site where terms like ‘space’ and ‘time’ have different dimensions. Employing scientific methods for artistic purposes reflects on strategies how to make complex phenomena visible. These strategies are located between the attempt to let nature picture its own condition (4) and the act of measuring, a deliberate interference, which aligns the picture with the experience made.
(1) Buttmann, G. 1965. Grosse Naturforscher. Band 30. Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft. Stuttgart. P.150-177
(2) Ware, M. 2014. Cyanomicon. Buxton. P.20
(3) Ian Strangeways, I. 2003. Measuring the Natural Environment. 2 Edition. Cambridge University Press. P.17
(4) Daston, L.J. and Galison, P. 2010. Objectivity. 2nd edn. New York: Zone Books. P.150-177
(10 2018)
open office landscape publication.
Publication Studio Rotterdam / NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein 2018
(09-10 2016)
open office landscape exhibition.
Neuer Aachener Kunstverein Aachen. DE 2016
(06-07 2016)
ars bioactica artist-in-residence.
Biological station Kilpisjärvi.FI 2016
The project was kindly supported by
Finnish Society for Bioart
University of Helsinki
NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein
STAWAG Stadtwerke Aachen AG
Goethe-Institut Rotterdam
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to who am I talking to
project. book / workshop. 2015-2017.
in collaboration with Sebastian Skacel, experimental quantum physicist DE
The project started with a research-residency at the Physics Research Institute for Experimental Quantum Research, KIT University Karlsruhe (DE) in January 2015. During this one moth residency, a similar interest in day-to-day challenges of research emerged. Moments of error, the role of failing, beauty and uncertainty became main topics of further conversations. In researching each other’s point of view, we started to employ each other’s working methods resulting in a workshop and a book.
The
workshop DIY Oscilloscope at the ZKM Karlsruhe provided the framework to regard the interaction of tool and developer. Here we developed with a mixed group of participant’s semi-scientific oscilloscopes from old TVs, arduinos, open source software and every day materials. The oscilloscope, an instrument to visualize electric waves, is a basic instrument also used in the research at the physics institute Karlsruhe. The workshop derives from the DIY - and Open source culture. DIY oscilloscopes aimed to make the immediate environment visible. Source inputs were sound, touch, dust, movement, electric radiation and conductivity in that also drawing a point of view, a point of interest.
The publication ...to who am I talking to... comprises notes, text, print outs of error measurement readings, photographs, comments and impressions of the workshop. In form and content, the publication stumbles upon topics like what it means to actual do experimental research on a daily basis, the language of scientific images, the necessity of errors in actions and material, and the problematic status of failing in research communities, which results in a non-disclosure of it.
(01 2017)
...to who am I talking to... book launch.
ZKM Centre for Media and Arts Karlsruhe DE
(11 2016)
Oszilloskop DIY workshop.
ZKM Center for Media and Arts Karlsruhe DE
(02 2015)
research residency. Institute for Physics. KIT Karlsruhe DE
kindly supported by
City of Karlsruhe Projectfund
‘Schnittstellen zwischen Kunst und Wissenschaft 2016’
ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
