rest of frogs

we show obsession and dissolution
[at parenthesis, a 24 h non-stop
unconference in geneva, nov 6/7]
with films + words + these frogs:

The presentation DIS.SOLUTION of Adreis Echzehn and Elfie Miklautz for parenthesis (http://www.sarn.ch/assets/Parenthesis-Programme.pdf) refers to the project other spaces – knowledge through art. Funded by FWF Austrian Science Fund, the project brings together artists and scientists with their various means of world approach.

Starting point of this exchange between two universes is a concrete collaboration on a jointly developed topic – other spaces –, then used to identify, compare, and merge different accesses. Therefore, the means at our disposal are those that artists and scientists utilize when writing, composing, staging, philosophizing, interpreting, inventing, informing, etc.

Which aspects may be seen as common and/or different, is not prematurely hypostasized with scientifically formulated theories but is instead left open, thereby enlarging the realm of possibility for the unexpected or surprising.

Participating sciences take responsibility for the organization of an ongoing process of discussion between arts and sciences, and the documentation thereof. This entails the exemplary formation of an echo space between the participating arts and sciences; a multifaceted space of thought for different perspectives to reverberate against each other.

Unconference presentation – two parts (55 min.)

The first part (30 min.) will treat the ongoing redefiniton of the affair between arts and sciences, questioning what that could mean for science, and sequentially promoting a mutual driving force: CURIOSITY.

Science in search of knowledge still regards with suspicion the creative impetus of passion and obsession, as these are seen to create (sic) danger of losing control and being „contaminated“ by subjectivity. So far it’s appreciated solely in the arts that emotion and cognition have a liaison. But science not taking risks will produce mere self-referential results already known right from the start.

Counterpoint is intended with the presentation’s second part; scientist Elfie Miklautz and artist Adreis Echzehn will show their 25 min. film named al niente. It follows a triple-blind concept: double-screen videos and the soundtrack of two collaborating composers were produced separately, only sharing few basic plot topics. Empty house. Dark river. Secluded child.

Made of in-house produced video/music/text/sound/image, this collaboration between conceptual art, sociology and composition is based on – curiosity. It’s about correspondences between exterior spatial experiences and interior experience spaces. Italian musical phrase al niente literally says “to nothing”; a diminuendo fading into silence. It’s about finding heterotopias where silence becomes audible, where dissolution goes nothingness. Then coming out.

Related video/sound/image on www.spaciergang.org/category/alniente/