Saturday, September 15, 2018

Palinopsia/seeing again

‘Palinopsia / seeing again’ is a laser projection work on a Glow-in-the-Dark (GITD) surface that Jurgen Meekel and Jill Richards made in collaboration with engineers Daniel de Kock and Jarryd Bekker.  


The Laser work
The most recent iteration of the work was the practical component for Jurgen’s MAFA exhibition: ‘Palinopsia: Images at their Ends: A Practice-based study in Traces, Temporality and Image Dissipation, using Glow In The Dark Laser Technology as a Medium for Contemporary Art.’
A short clarifying 3 min registration from an exhibition at Wits / Point of Order, 2018 can be found at https://youtu.be/N9zCj4SYF90.

With a purplish-blue UV laser as a projection source and using fully covered painted phosphorescent canvas as the projection surface, after-glowing images are projected that appear line by line (much like a fax or inkjet printer). In this way, the projection canvas records the image. The projected image/text elements will diminish in luminosity over time. New elements are projected as the older ones fade.

When projecting with lasers onto a glow-in-the-dark surface the image will leave a clear green trace and remains visible for some time (4-6 min). After that, one can re-project over the remaining image to create a visual layering.  The way temporality and perseverance leave a finite mark or trace of the projected image positions glow-in-the-dark laser projection between cinema and photography.


The Performance
The proposed work for ISEA will be a collaboration between Jurgen Meekel and Jill Richards. Similarly to G-I-T-D laser projection, music operates on the basis of time. Therefore we have chosen existing contemporary musical pieces (recordings of my performances), self-composed pieces and pre-produced soundscapes from various audio recordings that have a relationship with temporality and decay. There will be 5 sections of each 10 / 20 minutes. The individual sections are different ways to engage and play with the medium, wherein some parts the improvised and premeditated music and sounds propel the projection and vice-versa in other parts.
Like this, an audience will also be able to distinguish the difference between the sound and the visual approaches. There will be overlapping transitions in visual and audio depending on the dissipation of the images and timing of the soundscapes. It takes around 8 minutes for an image to fully dissipate and we will also use sounds that linger. 

The sections: 
Fragments and omissions
Palinacousis (hearing again)
Decay
Silence and edges
Impermanence