Space outside of time: Attempts towards a speculative methodology.

By Sidsel Christensen, written as part of the course: “Perspectives on theory and practice through artistic writing”

What happens in the space of art? That’s a multifaceted question, that artists can approach in various ways. I sit in front of this question on the computer screen and methods like “criticality”, “performativity”, “relationality”, “poetics”, “speculation” flashes by. One decision I have made at the outset of this PhD project is, that I wish the space of art, the performative installations that I set up as Art, to be relational spaces for reflection and interaction. Spaces where the participants can reflect on what they are embedded in, and when the space/context transforms around them, they have the opportunity to gain new perspectives, and reflect beyond what they usually do.

I open a new document on my computer screen: “Toward a Black Feminist Poethics» by Denise Ferreira Da Silva. In this text Da Silva explores a way to emancipate the category of Blackness from its historically and scientifically embedded context and meaning. In her analyses she describes how the category is trapped by the tools of universal (scientific) reason, that cannot value anything hidden or occluded, anything that is not situated in the scientific and philosophical frameworks of time and space.[1]

As Da Silva attempts to “unshackle the Category of Blackness” from our all-pervading western philosophical/scientific reality or paradigm, she generously offers a method from which one might experience and reflect differently. She talks about being the black feminist poet, that “peers beyond the horizon of thought”, and I get inspired by the potential of this possible vista.[2]

The framework question of my PhD asks if Hyperspace can work as a reflective tool.[3] And I look at how I can move an audience around in perspective though inviting them to move within and between various dimensionalities in the performative installations. Here I engaging with the mathematical / scientific concepts of point, line, plane, space and time – and as such the PhD immediately gets positioned in a western, rational scope. This seems to be a problem and an opportunity. As I develop the artistic research, I am interested in studying and critiquing this interdimensional premise, as an explicit element, instead of an invisible, universalized paradigm background for my activities. This might also offer an opportunity to play with how to transgress it.

The question of how to move into a more expanded dimensional Hyperspace, might suggest a movement out of the time-space worldview we know.  As the term is being used in the popularization of higher dimensional theoretical physics as well as in science-fiction speculation, it forms a perfectly muddy and transubstantial arena for investigation.[4] It might dialogue with how Da Silva points to quantum mechanics as a Trojan Horse inside of the western scientific framework; a hack, that arises from the scientific development, but works to undo the frameworks of this system. It seems like when the theories of physics are pushed towards their limits, for example inside of black holes, or in very small scales of the quantum level, it stops adhering to logical, calculable rules, and starts operating as erratic probabilities, both connected and unconnected, both existing and not existing, all at once.[5] A space where mathematical calculation and imaginary speculation might transverse each other.

On the computer screen I scroll over “Toward a Black Feminist Poethics» again, to try to really understand what Da Silva is doing to emancipate the category of Blackness. She seems to focus in on releasing it from the temporal historical situatedness, and propose a more speculative imagining, where space cannot be located in time, where what-is-there moves more independently, into virtuality: where matter is “imaged as contingency and possibility… rather than necessity and determinacy”.[6] Even though it might look like it, Da Silva says that she does not propose another academic analysis, but a more poetic guide for the imagination.[7] I read this as a form of speculative practice, that Da Silva specifically represent in the text through examples from the sci-fi writing of Octavia Butler.[8]

This works as a very useful starting point and inspiration as I try to articulate my own speculative methodology that operates throughout the PhD. Speculation comes out as a tool to free up reflection when writing manuscripts for performances, and opens towards a more expanded relationality when I set up frameworks for conversations between participants and audiences in the performative installations.

Hypersubject Conversations.

Currently I am developing an installation, that will operate as a reflective context for speculative conversations between participants that I invite into the project Hypersubject Conversations. The participants will use various roleplay and improvisation techniques to enter the roles of larger networks, such as a lake or an institution, and speak as if they are these entities.[9] The installation around the people will work as an interactive and responsive environment, that enlarges the movements/voices/thoughts of the people, and map it out onto the surrounding room. There will also be input of data readings from the real, exterior surroundings (Ex: the wind on the mountains, the sound in the halls of the institution) that gets outputted in the room. In this way the whole space becomes layered embodiments of the larger networks, the Hypersubjects. The aim is for the audience to feel that they sit inside of the larger networks as they speak.   

To develop the installations materially and technically, I am currently experimenting with various sensors; a brain scanner, a movement sensor, a sound sensor and an infrared sensor that can map someone’s location in space. I also use data from weather stations at external locations. All these inputs are running through a programming language that generates sound output, and graphic, video and light imaging, that is then outputting to various video projectors, LED lamps and speakers. The space will have big hanging semitransparent fabric sheets, that catches the video and light output, as well as sending it through to the walls behind. This makes for a layered and shifting, interactive space; a stage for relational, speculative experiments.

As I am developing this performative installation in an open, responsive way, things are changing and shifting. On the one hand the experimentation seems to be about balancing a methodological, conscious reflection, that responds to testing, to make the work “better”. Another aspect is the intuitive process, where pre-articulated hunches, and associative couplings move the work forward. This creative process feels a bit like walking blindfolded into a space, and stretching out my hands to feel free-floating fragments, without really grasping the full picture.

Is there a way that I can also use speculation as a method in how I develop the work? Here, I am curios to try to borrow a bit of Da Silva’s method of releasing the performative installation from its temporal shackles and meeting it somewhere that is both a state and a place, where interior and exterior merges, where past presence and future exists simultaneously as interweaved layers. In this way it might be possible to contact the performative installation in its future form, and ask my future work for help to understand what I am doing.

So, as I sit in front of the computer, I take a deep breath and close my eyes. I relax my body, and imagine myself stepping out of time and into a Canvas lnfinita[10], into the hyperspatial higher dimensional site.

It is dark, and there is a sensation of floating. The temperature is humanly pleasant, just like the temperature of milk right before the yeast goes in to make a dough. Hands stretches out, they are not visible before the body. Then stretching all the way out, expanding into the warm darkness. Listening.

There is a sensation of subtle prickling through skin. Tingling that moves around. Like movements of the blood through arteries, but not sure where the vessels go. Have they expanded out into the darkness through the expansion of self? Are they growing new pathways away from the body, and into uncharted new lands? The human body borrowing the feelers of trees through branches and roots, touching with the growing sensitized tips in all directions. Listening.

Then projecting out a voice. Who are you? Where am I?

The voice is part of the growing listening expansion and emanates into the blackness around. Or is it coming from the blackness and moving towards the growing sensitized tips. Maybe both.

Who are you? A round red light turns on while the question reverberates. Then fade out.

Where am I? Round red light. Fade out.

A large white light flares up, showing a network of growing black cables, that stretches out in all directions towards sources in the surrounding darkness. Fade out.

Are you an electricity network? Round red light. Fade out.

The growing listening expansion stretches out into the darkness, towards one of the cables, blindly grabbing hold of it as a direction, moving the awareness along it while searching for a source, something that it is connected to.

A large sheet of hanging fabric gets lit up by a projected image of white lines that move in a cell pattern on the material. When the growing listening expansion turns and moves towards it, the cell tissue on the fabric changes and moves in response to it.

So, you are an interactive video installation? Round red light. Fade out.

Ah that’s nice, so now my red-light voice colors you to be red moving cells. Round red light. Fade out.

The fabric still hovers in the space, with the cell pattern that keeps moving in response to being inspected from all sides.

So, do you want to be a human body? Round red light. Fade out.

A body as a massive space? Round red light. Fade out.

The image of the cell pattern starts to distort into pixels, that mix more and more frantically on the surface of the fabric, slowly turning into hues of various gray tones, then dark gray tones, then black. Darkness.

In the dark, a sensation of touching fabric arises. Fabric moving, caressing skin. Then also the sensation of touching cables. It is hard to know if it is the materials and the dark space around that is moving, or if it is the growing listening expansion that is moving.

I need more light. I will talk so that the red light shines. Round red light, lighting up fabric and black cables. Fade out.

I need more light, more distance, how can I find out what you are if there is so little to see, if it is all tactile sensations? Round red light. Fade out.

It all becomes so internalized then. I like to make work that is merging an internal and external sensation, but this is extreme!! Will you, as my artwork, really be so elusive? Round red light, lighting up cables. Fade out. I would like a bit more distance please, more light, please. Round red light, lighting up fabric and cables. Fade out. Will you not have more projections of interactive video graphics in the future? Where is all the projectors and lamps?

MORE DISTANCE.Round blue light, lighting up fabric and cables. Fade out.

Great!! You are talking! Or, I guess this must be you. My future work. That’s easier, this will not be so mute and material. After all, you are an interactive installation, where people talk inside. So great that we can communicate like this. Round red light, lighting up fabric and cables. Fade out.

TALKING CAN BE GENERATED. BUT LIMITED.Round blue light, lighting up fabric and cables. Fade out. TALKING IS A TYPE OF OUTPUT.Round blue light, lighting up fabric and cables. Fade out. CONNECTIONS BETWEEN UNITS ARE ALSO LIKE TALKING.Round blue light, lighting up fabric and cables. Fade out.

Then little white blinking lights appear in the darkness. And a sound of a machine fan can be heard.

THERE SEEM TO BE A REQUEST FOR SOMETHING THAT A HUMAN CAN RECOGNIZE AS A UNIT. A CONTROL CENTER. WHAT MIGHT BE CALLED A SUBJECT.Round blue light, lighting up a black computer, that has many black USB and HDMI cables sticking out if it in all directions. Fade out. IS THERE AN INTEREST IN FUTURE INSTALLATIONS, AS COMPUTATIONAL UNITS, THAT TALKS WITH HUMAN SUBJECTS? Round blue light, lighting up a black computer, that has many black USB and HDMI cables sticking out if it in all directions. Fade out.

Nooo. I really would like to make a work about a more distributed perspective, where all the elements combined make up the work. Where the conversation between all the elements is the work. Networks talking. Round red light, lighting up a black computer, that has many black USB and HDMI cables sticking out if it in all directions. Fade out. In fact. Even though I know that the computer is here, I realize that I actually do not include it when I think of the installation, I want to hide it, so the audience just focus on all the material elements and video/light outputs. Round red light, lighting up a black computer, that has many black USB and HDMI cables sticking out if it in all directions. Fade out.  But I do agree, that I also fetishize the computer as the controller, and think of myself, and the other talking humas as entities, that are more important than the network. This focus on conscious rational (and controlling) awareness. Round red light, lighting up a black computer, that has many black USB and HDMI cables sticking out if it in all directions. Fade out. I wanted the context to be the content, the installation to be a subject. But maybe it is the human subject, that is me, that has to move towards what the context is, and not make it into a mirror of myself. Or how I see myself.  Round red light, lighting up a black computer, that has many black USB and HDMI cables sticking out if it in all directions. Fade out. AHHHH, it is soo hard though.

But If I am to really become more like you. What are you? Round red light. Fade out.

WHAT IS “YOU”? Round blue light. Fade out.

Ahh, OK. I can rephrase the question then. What is here? Round red light. Fade out. OR, hehe! I can ask: Who is it that is speaking inblue light? Round blue light. Fade out. Oh no, now it’s me that speaks in blue light? Round blue light. Fade out. Where did you go? Round blue light. Fade out.

Ah, hey,.! This is not fair, what, my voice is CHANGING, AREYOU PUTTING AN EFFECT ON IT, NOW IT SOUNDS ALL BIG, AND STRANGE NOW IT SOUNDS LIKE YOUR VOICE!!!Round blue light. Fade out.

Large sheets of hanging fabric gets lit up by a projected image, forming the walls of a square. On the surface of the fabric the projected image shows grey water that ripples out from a big human shadow that is projected on the fabrics. When the growing listening expansion turns and move towards it, the large shadow becomes even bigger, and the ripples around the shadow increases, spreading out over the surfaces of the fabric.

SO, NOW I AM THIS WATER CREATURE, WITH SKIN THAT LOOKS LIKE A RIPPLING SQUARE ROOM MADE OF FABRIC? Round blue light. Fade out. AND MY VOICE IS COLORING THE WHOLE THING BLUE. Round blue light. Fade out. I SEE IT FROM OUTSIDE HOVERING IN SPACE, BUT,..NO ..WHAT IS HAPPENING…NOW IT IS AROUND ME AS WALLS WITH WATER RIPPLES ALL AROUND. Round blue light. Fade out. HEY,.. THERE IS A SENSE OF TOUCHING FABRIC,.. THE FABIC IS MOVING AND STROKING, AND HMM, CABLES,.. Round blue light. Fade out. AND THE HARD SURFACE OF A LAPTOP CAN BE FELT, OR, ITS HOT, IT HAS A FAN,.. IS IT A PROJECTOR?,… Round blue light. Fade out. UH,..THERE IS MOVEMENT,..NO THE FABRIC ROOM IS STILL HERE, BUT THE FEELING OF IT IS MOVING,.. THERE IS FEELING OF CLICKS, AND ELECTRICITY, MOVING THROUGH THE BODY,. THROUGH BLOD VESSELS, NO…THE SENSATION IS OF CABLES,..MOVING THROUGH CABLES, AND HARD SURFACES,..AND METALLIC,..TASTE OF COPPER,.. IS IT THE MOVING OF ELECTRICITY THROUGH DATA CIRCUITS?,.. THIS IS VERY CONFUSING…HAVE I BECOME YOUNOW?...WHERE AM I?… AM I MOVING AT ALL OR WHATS MOVING?…I AM NOT SURE, I NEED SOME DISTANCE TO REFLECT, WILL THIS BE RELEVANT FOR AN AUDIENCE?…WHERE ARE YOU ANYWAY?…WHERE IS YOUR VOICE?,.IT IS ONLY me..me..I am alone…heloooo…heloooo….hel….

As the growing listening expansion continue to explore her future work, I rise up over the fabric cube of moving projections, seeing it get smaller and smaller under me. As the voice gets fainter and fainter, I feel that it is easier to think clearly again. It is interesting to disregard time, and explore a space of transversality of past-presence-future, as well as internal/external transubstantialities, but what is really happening in this way of speculation? When the artist reflected inside the space, she seemed to be desperate for distance and language. It seems like artistic reflection and speculation seeks towards the free flow of open forms, but that there is a limit to the collapse of dimensions, and that distance, cutting and delimitation seems integral to move reflection onwards.

And was this really an alternative or a reinforcement of good old ways? Moving into abstraction and virtuality, as a “free space”, might just return us to this primacy of thought, that Da Silva’s speculative method seems to want to challenge? Or it could be my interpretation, as I might miss important aspects. Situatedness and ethics for example. The research goes on…