Events 04|2006
Light Art from Artificial Light: accompanying program
Sat–Sun 8–9 April 2006
The Photogram
Licht, Spur und Schatten (Light, trace, and shadow)
[Symposium at ZKM_Lecture Hall
Sat 2 p.m.– 12:30 a.m., Sun 10 a.m.–2:30 p.m. free admission]
registration requested at eggebrecht@zkm.de
[=> Information auf Deutsch]
Photograms have not yet appeared at a »documenta« or »ars
electronica.« This lack of attention to the photogram as an art media,
implies a degradation of photography as a genre. The symposium will offer the
first scientific confrontation with a media that has led a hitherto shadowy
existence—not only with respect to cultural economy, but also media-theory.
Because the photogram as technique is positioned in scientific history rather
than in art, and light impressions, too, are discussed outside of usual photographic
discourse, this interdisciplinary meeting aims to develop a new perspective
on the outlawed media. Among other things, a contrast with scientific developments
by Becquerel or the X-ray, or, for example, occult picture creation processes,
such as those used by Louis Darget, should clarify that the photogram’s
technique presents a radical break with prior methods for producing vision and
image. By comparing various imprint techniques and shadows, the aim is to show
that the photogram, as a tracing media, has little in common with lens-based
photography. The emancipation from photography plays a crucial role here, as
it poses the question of the significance of acheiropoetic pictures, i.e., those
not made by the human hand. Also, the semiotic question of the relationship
of image, body/object and traced outlines seems to need re-negotiation. Ultimately,
the symposium aims to show that, at the start of the twenty-first century, the
visual realm in no way tends exclusively toward a mathematical form, but that
there are also—thoroughly complementary—counter-trends within the
indexical horizon such as the photogram, an archetypical and also modern tracing
image. An evening program on Saturday with photogram films by Man Ray, Stan
Brakhage, Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof, and others.
Participants
Monika Dommann, Zurich
Peter Geimer, Zurich
Thomas Fechner-Smarsly, Krakow
Andreas Fischer, Freiburg
Floris M. Neusüss, Kassel
Philipp Slusallek, Saarbrücken
Lambert Wiesing, Jena
Kelley E. Wilder, Berlin
Conference Chair:
Peter Weibel, Karlsruhe
Concept: Tim Otto Roth, Cologne
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