Meanwhile my favourite giallo “La tarantula del vientre negro” is looping in the background, the kabinett is slowly taking over the studio. Unfortunately the so called light tight molton leeks light — I will have to make another layer of that black monster. It’s time for a Campari Soda!
With nearly all the ingredients assembled, it is time to start the construction of my first mobile darkroom kabinett, to be able to proceed with new thoughtographic experiments at any time and any place. The mobile darkroom kabinett will be the bigger sister of a mobile laboratory for photosensitive chemistry and processings which has been successfully finished earlier this year.
It will be portable, stable – at least I hope so – and completely light tight. Just a comfortable seat has to be provided at the respective location.
Measurements: 1,30m x 1,70m x 2,20 m.
Materials: Aluminium, metal, molton and velcro
See images of the laboratory below, with many thanks to Lindsay
.
This is katiers first experiment concentrating into a mirror, coated with photographic emulsion, trying to focus, expose and reveal the image hiding behind the foggy blurriness.
Exposure time: 20 minutes
Developing Time: 9 minutes, using Adox Developer
Result: tiny, somehow suspicious black spots throughout the mirror
Image: scan of the exposed and processed mirror
The next experiments in katiers thoughtographic research involve a selection of handmirrors coated with silvergelatine. Details and results will soon be presented on this site.
Abbildung / Image: Agnès Geoffray, Night #3, 20 x 30 cm, 2005
‘Awake Are Only the Spirits’ – On Ghosts and Their Media
Hartware MedienKunstVerein at PHOENIX Halle Dortmund
16 May – 18 October 2009
Thu+Fri 16:00-20:00, Sat+Sun 11:00-20:00
OPENING: FRIDAY, 15 MAY 2009, 19:00
The exhibition ‘Awake Are Only the Spirits’ – On Ghosts and Their Media is dedicated to a topic that appears, at first glance, timeless: it involves the presence of the supernatural – the appearance of ghosts and (trans-)communication with ‘the beyond’ facilitated by technical media. The exhibition begins with the audio-tape archive of Friedrich Jürgenson who discovered the so-called Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) in 1959. As a result of the strong interest in the topic on behalf of contemporary artists, the exhibition questions why – despite our faith in the rational – at regular intervals irrational properties are ascribed to respective new media and technologies, such as those purportedly serving as channels for messages from ‘the beyond’. The exhibition shows 22 international artistic positions questioning the existence of ghosts, exploring the integration of new media and technologies in spiritualist contexts, investigating the making-visible or making-perceptible of the invisible, and tracing the political implications as well as the aesthetics of such contemporary trans-communication phenomena.
Inke Arns, Thibaut de Ruyter
CURATORS
Inke Arns & Thibaut de Ruyter
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Lucas & Jason Ajemian (US)
Archive of an Anonymous Ghost-Seer (DE), curated by hans w. koch
Sam Ashley (US)
Corinne May Botz (US)
Erik Bünger (SE)
Damien Cadio (FR)
Michael Esposito (US)
Nina Fischer/Maroan el Sani (DE)
Agnès Geoffray (FR)
Kathrin Günter (DE)
Carl Michael von Hausswolff (SE)
Tim Hecker (CA)
Susan Hiller (GB)
Martin Howse (GB)
International Necronautical Society (GB)
Friedrich Jürgenson (SE)
Joep van Liefland (NL)
Chris Marker (FR)
Jorge Queiroz (PT)
Scanner (GB)
Jan Peter E.R. Sonntag (DE)
Suzanne Treister (GB)
Recording Device: Self Constructed Eye Kamera with Instant Image Filmholder, 3rd Version [Medium Format]
Film: Black&White Polaroid 667, 3000 ASA
Daylight Collection: short walk to the supermarket, no intentional daylight collection
Exposure Time: 19 minutes;
Visual Thought Keywords during Exposure: Extreme concentration on producing a light spot in the lower middle part of the image
Katier with the very first kamera model.
Image thanks to Bengt
Recording Device: Self Constructed Eye Kamera with Instant Image Filmholder, 3rd Version [Medium Format]
Film: Black&White Polaroid 667, 3000 ASA
Daylight Collection:same day as images before, 3 hours later
Exposure Time: 15 minutes
Comments: Eyes were kept shut during exposure, no concentration and no focus at all.
[2]
Recording Device: Self Constructed Eye Kamera with Instant Image Filmholder, 3rd Version [Medium Format]
Film: Black&White Polaroid 667, 3000 ASA
Daylight Collection: 1 hour; 13 °C; bright sunshine
Exposure Time: 25 minutes;
Visual Thought Keywords during Exposure: Concentration on producing visible spots and light
Comments: This experiment leads to weird chemical reactions. Polaroid had to be pulled manually through the rollers. Next image got lost, last image [2] on film turns out with light spots without being exposed to any light and pulled out normally of the polaroid back.
Seeing one’s own double
(…)
Comparing a large number of cases Dr. Sollier found that the apparition has many degrees from the simple impression of being in one’s own presence to the clear vision as if in a mirror. In the last case the apparition is sudden and does not last long. Any excitement whatever will make it disappear. When the phantom has different attributes, is smaller in stature, different in clothes, it may persist for hours in different intensity. The moment of apparition is usually during the evening hours, in states of deep meditation, self-concentration or anaesthesia. The distance at which it is seen varies from a few yards to close proximity. Sometimes it marches before the subject and vanishes all at once, sometimes it turns about or moves to the side and imitates his movements. In most cases it is silent. Occasionally there is a dialogue and difference of opinion between phantom and self. When the phantom has different attributes his clothes are usually black and the ressemblance is like that of a brother. The costume, however, may be identical with that of a favourite romantic hero or with one worn in the past.
From: Encyclopedia of Psychic Science by Nandor Fodor, University Books, 1966, excerpt from entry: “seeing one’s own double”