metal, wood, glas, magnetic tape, nylon string, light
BARAD complex II - LIGHT MATTER
deconstruction chamber : superposition
immersive sculptural setting, 2023
inspired by the Agential Realism of Karen Barad (quantum physicist, feminist, philosopher)
club gallery "absorb" at diskoBABEL, Berlin
Sculptural and three-dimensional graphic elements made of wood, metal, glass, nylon string and magnetic tape are suspended from the ceiling. They are arranged in such a way as to allow the potential of the materials to unfold in a spatial interplay initiated by light. When the light sources are directed in an intentional manner onto the object installation, the concrete material characteristics dissolve and fluid, random compositions of lucid reflections appear. The lines and internal structures create both strikingly clear and complexly diffuse drawings, extending and superimposing across the ceiling and walls. The deep black, richly reflecting material surfaces create a technoid-mystical atmosphere. The lightness and mobility of the reflective materials transform the room into an optical floating environment, with strong black and white contrasts determining the dynamic situation.
The visual transformation processes, controlled in real-time by the audience via light, oscillate between unambiguity with clear spatial presence and ambiguity through spatial deconstruction. They invoke Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which states that when measuring at the quantum level, we can never capture all the data. There are always certain aspects that are lost when we focus in a particular way, and only one construct of reality can be clearly experienced at a time.
LIGHT MATTER refers to kinetic installations of sculptural elements that are sensitive to light and movement. Their specific structure provokes the interaction of humans, inorganic matter and light through movement. Using variable light sources, humans casually enter into complex relationships when activating the installation. These settings are catalysts for the kind of interest that wants to explore and investigate, driven by curiosity and fascination and the desire for the unpredictable. The focus of attention is on the observation of the visual-auditory and kinaesthetic phenomena that the public itself triggers and is a part of. Due to the particular structure of the installation, its depth and apparent vastness, an impression of spacelessness is created. This impression is similar to computer-generated virtual spaces, submarine environments or even cosmic notions. Distinct haptic boundaries of physical objects and places are visually expanded, the just tangible situation transmutes into a "virtual virtuality". Like what we know in film theory as 'suspension of disbelief', but in a more immersive and haptic situation. An ever deeper immersion into the sensory-cognitive experience of the interplay of different aspects of being is inspired. In the sense of the quantum physicist, feminist and philosopher Karen Barad, the living intra-action of the 'organic', the 'inorganic' and light takes place as an equal coexistence.
LIGHT MATTER resolutely avoids digital or pre-made projections. Based on tangible matter, all visual phenomena are generated in real time. The focus on the physically present, the factual and the physical is motivated by the often hidden, unspectacular surfaces, the overwhelmingly rich potential of the material. The materials used are simple in appearance, but are installed and staged in such a way as to reveal some of their inherent complexity. The resulting visual appearances are reminiscent of the material's microstructures. Through refraction, diffraction, scattering, reflection, projection and superimposition in motion, they create multidimensional, chaotic choreographies of astonishing aesthetics. The agent (self-activity) inherent in all material things contributes to the shaping of the process without being noticed. It unfolds its effect in the transitional area between "animate" and "inanimate" matter.
Following Karen Barad's quantum physics-based Agential Realism, LIGHT MATTER installations practise the dissolution of clear demarcations of assumed entities, i.e. self-contained wholes, at a visual level. They reject this traditional European description of reality in favour of a natureimmanent and spiritual understanding of mutual conditionality and address the deep dimension of reality.