7.45 pm until 2.00 am. One night at a bar in Berlin. I positionned the camera very close to me in a corner catching the entire and intense atmosphere of the night and the bar. The first image is the negative, the second the positiva and the third the inverted negative of the instant film.
PS 17th march 2010: Mr.Pickledfeet is back in town, and here are the images of the Kamera:
To investigate an image pixel by pixel, mm by mm or cm by cm … the already mentionned image magick trick may help. These are screenshots of my gthumb imageviewer containing 197 .tiff (f)tiles of one thoughtographic image I made earlier on…
Results of further investigations into the darkness of this paper negative – original size 8 x5 cm – are hopefully soon to be published.
Another experiment using light.
This time I customised a little case that formerly gave home to a chinese handmirror. I enlarged the focal length about 12 cm, covered the pinhole on the front with another sample spy mirror and attached an instant filmholder on the back. (Images of the camera will follow soon).
The Fuji FP 3000B is a kind of traditional instant film that uses the so called separation process. The result is always a negative and a positive. Strangely enough in this case, I got, as you may see in the results above, two positives of the same image. The only difference is, that the alleged negative is brighter and rather greyish but also: Only the little spotty line at the bottom indicates its negativeness. No other blacks or whites in the image got inverted. And then: Who are these dots anyway?
The second sitting, as you can see below shows the normal positive-negative behaviour:
As I already mentionned in an earlier post, i have now started to use light in my thoughtographic experiments as a carrier for thoughtographic exposure. The invisible fluid might expose itself through the very light, that i have been striclty excluding and banning in former thoughts and experiments, concerned that the light might be too powerful to overexpose the fragile fluidum. But now, this is exactly the new starting point of another hypothesis: The Fluidum uses light as a carrier to reveal itself in the very exposure.
Microscopically zooming into the image may expose the oh so invisible creature of thought.
This is the result – a close up (unfortunately not yet microscopically) and beyond also the entire image – of a selfportrait (sitting time about 10 minutes, Fuji FP 3000 instant film) with a Spymirror-InstantImage-Pinhole-VHSBox-Kamera.
A VHS Box is used as a camera obscura and carrier of the instant image filmholder. The Pinhole, piercing the VHS Box, is covered by a small spy mirror (10 x 6 cm) that i kindly got as a free sample from Glaserei Kater, Hannover. The focal lenght of course is very short, just like the thickness of the VHS Box. 1 or 2 cm.
While the sitter watches him or herself in the mirror, the mirror absorbes the image and burns it onto the photographic paper. Spy mirrors are half transparent glas mirrors; from a darkroom (in this case the camera obscura) the spy (camera obscura) can see through the mirror like through a window, whereas the other side (the sitter) cannot see anything but the own reflection.
On February 15th I placed a light tight, sealed DinA4 sheet of photographic paper – cut up into 6 more or less equal parts – layed ontop of each other – at the innerside of the back cover of the book Dracula, that Mr. Pickledfeet just started to read. A couple of days ago, he finished the book with both sadness and delight, and I could finally process the 6 sheets curiously:
Spy mirrors are half transparent glas mirrors. Given certain light conditions it is possible to see through the mirror from one side – a darkroom – and to see your reflection from the other side – a bright room. This is caused by the extremely thin coating of the reflection layer, that reduces the transmissibility to about 8 or 9 percent.
Step 1: In this experiment I placed a photographic paper behind the spy mirror and sealed it with a black light tight cardboard from behind. I exposed the mirror to my face under daylight circumstances for about half a minute. Reflection and absorbtion. I am standing in the light and naturally I see my own reflection, whereas the photographic paper, the spy, sits in the darkroom and observes the other side, me. It is not only observing me, but with the observing process it absorbs the little light that the thin mirror coating leeks through which at the same time exposes the paper.
Reflection and absorbtion, all witnessed by the spy behind the mirror.
Step 2: Processing the photographic paper.
Step 3: Blow up the received image – which turned out to be black, of course – to my maximum possibilities, and search for clues.
In my prior thoughtographic experiments I have always been stricly excluding natural light not to overexpose the fragile visible signs of thoughts, assuming that the light might be too powerful. Now i am trying to use this very light as a possible carrier maybe to find some clues about the invisible made visible in the very darkness of overexposure.
A collection of different handmirrors, coated with Liquid Light, a photoemulsion. The coated mirror will be exposed to light and will constantly absorb – without any hiding- the reflections and projections of the onlookers. As the coating of the emulsion leaves the mirror somehow blurry or seemingly blind, it appearantly denies its purpose. The constant light exposure provokes a constant change of the emulsion until its supersaturation, – a very subtle process though, that remains invisible and unnoticeable to the viewer. The image within the emulsion may only be revealed throughout processing, which will never happen.
Today I placed several sheets of photographic paper, sealed in two layers of black, light tight envelopes, that I always use for my experiments, behind especially chosen carriers in the studio. A Mirror, A Painting and A Book. For a period of one week, these sensitive creatures will be hidden, absorbing witnesses of all activities around here. Alleged secrets will be brought to light throughout developing processes next Monday, the 22nd of Februray.
1. Mirror
2. Painting
3. Book
The exhibition project Kabinet For Thoughtography is having its own space now. The site is still under development, but will be regularily updated and outdated, added and substracted underlayered and overlayered…
The proposed exhibition aimes to reveal and bring to light throughout a very experimental and strictly artistic approach nowadays unknown or long forgotten thoughtographic researches of the 19th and 20th century. It further seeks to break open their scientific shell and allow new and different perspectives, playful possibilities and directions.
This exhibition is a hidden, interactive installation, an experimental kabinet and laborint of thoughtographic exposure. Secretely embedded in a setting that reminds of the aesthetics of the british television series The Avengers, the concept of the exhibion foresees different interweaving layers. Laborint, Limbo and Lichtung. An eye catching camouflage for a rather delicate if not invisible content.
Any invitiations to a physical exhibition space, or possible integrations of parts of it into already existing structures or concepts are very welcome! The infinitely revised german and english version of the proposal will be hopefully soon ready…
Its new home winkerwatson.com was made possible thanks to the new and wonderful webtool hotglue.me!
The Red Velvet Curtain Cult presents
‘VOYEUR’
A late night event at The Whitechapel Art Gallery .
Thursday 3rd December 2009. 7-10pm.
Free
For their Fourth instalment at the Whitechapel Art Gallery the Red Velvet Curtain Cult presents ‘Voyeur’. An evening of gazing, peeking and lurking with live art, installation, films, readings, audio and oddities inspired by the works and processes of Sophie Calle.
Expect to be spied upon, interrogated, stalked, perplexed, entranced & mystified by this evening exploring voyeuristic tendencies. You will find works in the shadows, intimate encounters, information overload, your thoughts laid bare and secrets exposed…
Serenaded by ‘Love Stop Repeat’ & DJ Sy Hackney, compered by Brian Dawn Chalkley.
Riffat Ahmed, Jack Catling, Amanda Castro with the Jeremis Iron Arts Collective, Rebecca Chitty & David King, Tamara Erde, Camila Fiori, Emma Gibson, The Great Antagonist, Kathrin Günter, Gabo Guzzo, Poppy Jackson, Mary Beth Morossa, Marianna & Daniel O’Reilly, Simon Raven, Alexa Reid, Sarah Ruff, Alexandra Santos, Nicola Singh, Folie a Trois, Richard Webb, Kate Wiggs, Sonya Chenery & Joanna Austin, Andy Wood, Nicola Woodham & Robin Bale
Curated by Lili Spain and Sarah Grainger-Jones.