Moment

• Wednesday January 30th, 14h00-16h00
• @ TML (EV-7.725) + the FOFA Gallery (EV-1.715)

People

• Xin Wei, Josée-Anne, Ludwig, Elena, Tim, JC and JS

Keypoints

• Looked at Remedios’ paintings and discussed method to integrate recurring imagery into the installation.
• Visited the FOFA gallery, shot videos and took pictures from multiple perpectives.

Summary

Xin Wei introduced the second major influence in the upcoming FOFA exposition: the work of painter Remedios Varo. As described in the linked wikipedia article, Varo “[…] was as fascinated with the legend of the Holy Grail as with sacred geometry, alchemy and the I-Ching. She saw in each of these an avenue to self-knowledge and the transformation of consciousness.” And thus a mix of naturality (”terrarium”) and mystic surrealism (”remedios”) are now underlined themes for the exposition.

Highlighted ideas from Varo’s work were the many forms of peeling — either on surfaces or characters to reveal other inner symbols & meanings (added meaning, oppositions, trompe-l’oeuils, etc) — and the transubstantiation of the natural elements into physical objects (eg. rays of moonlight transforming into the strings of a lute from which the music transforms into flying doves, etc).

Ideas for the Black Box room: having tiny treasure chests (as in a piece by Varo), possibly each representing a TML researcher, which hold tiny secrets and a main TML treasure chest — which could be technologically enhanced to capture the faces of the visitor’s peeking into it. JS reckons these faces could be stored and used in a manner to represent past visitors by re-projecting them somehow.

Ideas for the corridor: using the entire corridor to present the history of the TML through printed (and possibly televised) artifacts that would be related to each other as a horizontally suspended tree structure referring to a horizontal timeline of TML activity. Printed medium could be various types of paper, cloth, etc. Small electronic displays or slide-projectors were also considered, but the use of projectors was deemed unnecessary to instead favor low-tech, analog technologies. A single plasma screen (maybe with a Jitter patch) could although be used at the end of a corridor to represent the current status of TML activity (end of the timeline).

Ideas for the main gallery room: making it seem underground, or as a box within a box (ie. a space within a space) to give the feeling of an enclosed space for the terrarium concept. Also, ideas of hanging cloth to cover the ceiling to enclose the space, to be projected on from below. A natural material is preferred to go along with the terrarium concept; a material related to plant-life and growth. Also ideas of covering the floor (with straw, to give smell and texture — sort of like a door mat but more natural and wild — or some sort of carpet-like natural botanical fiber discussed by Josee-Anne for smell and biodegradability (change over time of exposition)).

Medias

• 9 clips
• 116 pictures