Mörk Materia / Dark Matter(s)

TM

The practice-based research carried out throughout several projects and assembled in this exposition is structured around a rhizomatic nexus of still ongoing entries into plant-thinking and co-becoming with plants, partly based on photographic, photosynthetic and biosynthetic processes under the project framework Cogito ergo Pisum, partly based on archival findings, found footage, phenomena and related discourse. "Cogito, ergo sum" is a philosophical statement in Latin by René Descartes, usually translated into English as "I think, therefore I am". The phrase originally appeared in French as je pense, donc je suis in his Discourse on the Method, to reach a wider audience. Connecting and collapsing the notion of thinking with plants – or in this case gray peas of the species Pisum sativum var. arvense, transposed into "Cogito ergo Pisum" – is at the heart of this research. Within the project I am researching, developing and cross-breeding a flora of transdisciplinary experiments, new material studies and processes, that revolve around ways of rethinking, creating for and becoming with other life forms. Photographic, biosynthetic and agricultural methodologies are being used in Cogito ergo Pisum to both analyze and synthesize new ecologies. On the basis of horizontal (gene) transfer, hybridity and hospitality, a number of agents, patients and symbionts have been subject to material-semiotic and transgenic inquiries: Timo the artist and Timo the grey pea — bioart experiments involving horizontal transfer of my DNA to a grey pea cultivar (Pisum sativum var.arvense). Pisum Sativum used by Gregor Mendel in 1856 when unfolding many of the rules of heredity, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance, constitute a key plant in "Cogito ergo Pisum". Epidermodysplasia verruciformis, also known as Tree Man Syndrome, an extremely rare autosomal recessive genetic hereditary skin disorder, and Foliate heads, also known as Green men, constitute a highly symbolic reading of a hybrid plant-human being. Several works and results of the processes active in Cogito ergo Pisum have been installed in a number of exhibitions, many of which are ongoing or infinite by nature; presented in open archival or horizontal hybrid structures with documents, negative cyanotype photograms, wall drawings and lab notes on paper, mail correspondence, facsimile of illustrated manuscripts, and cultivations of growing grey pea seeds. Some of them, including literature, phenomena, found footage and historical events have later made it into the polyphonic performance reading "Mörk Materia / Dark Matter(s)", which has been adapted and reconfigured to the contexts it has been performed in. Using photographic and moving images, documents, objects, drawings and plant cultivations I am approaching, renegotiating and speculating about our common nature-culture, to both highlight and transform an increasingly dark matter: body, earth, space.

Punctum I

When eyesight becomes darkened, reading becomes listening. To others' voices readings. To audiobook voices, or the dark voices of speech synthesis, such as my voice, transforming reading into listening.

Do you hear me?

Reading could become touching, writings for fingers. Braille is literally based on the sure instinct of fingertips. A Braille character consists of a square, with up to six raised dots – a cell. By combining points in the cell, you get 63 different combinations, which make up the letters of the alphabet, numbers, and punctuation.

This text should actually be read from a Braille book. But only few want or can read Braille today.

Photo Credit: Förbundet Finlands Svenska Synskadade https://www.fss.fi

Punctum II

Semiotician Roland Barthes writes in Camera Lucida about punctum and its opposite studium, as two different ways of experiencing images. He describes punctum as something in the image that 'pierces the viewer' and shoots arrows through the flat image.

It is often about a small detail which catches your interest and sticks in your memory, long after the picture in question is out of sight. Punctum is not part of the image, but in the viewer's mind and beyond the photographer's control. It can be difficult to point to the punctum of the image.

Once again: It can be difficult to point to the punctum of the image.

In retrospect the concept becomes clear and grows in strength. It could be a detail that captivates the viewer and strengthens the image, or acts in the opposite direction, as disturbance, error or deviation. The point that punctures the retina – to be read in Braille. The dots’ shape form a light dark shadow. If every library had a copy of Camera Lucida in Braille, could your fingers resist touching the dots?

Punctum III

Punctum has many meanings. Lacrimal punctum denotes the opening to the upper and lower lacrimal puncta in each eyelid. It is from here the tears dip into the lacrimal lake, after being produced in the lacrimal gland above the eye. To you wondering if the blind can cry: you should ask yourself if you can get blind from crying?

Punctum is both what punctures and connects simultaneously: image and gaze, tear and eye, letter and finger.

Tip

Tip

Punctum I

Punctum II

Punctum III