Longing for Sight

re-thinking visual

concept
structure
a dark place
a light hole
longing for sight
statements! ! ! ! ! !
budget
contact

seeingistouching: Laetitia Boulud/Alex de Jong

Friday, March 12, 2010

 collaborators
Avi Pitchon
Dr. Michal Popowsky
Meira Ascher
Alla Eisenberg
Daniel Bloom
Sammy Birnbach [DJ Morphuse]
Daan Masman

to be confirmed:
Moniek Toebosch (advisor)

Friday, March 12, 2010

 concept
What do we see when we first open our eyes as human beings?

“Longing for Sight” aims to tackle questions regarding our human ability to perceive reality pre-sight, or beyond sight in a visual manner.
This is a search for the limitations of eye-seeing. The notion of ʻthe inner eyeʼ revealing an absolute subjective and the ʻregardʼ reflecting
the combination of objective and subjective is juxtaposed with an experiential tracing of the full spectrum of sight: seeing, partly seeing,
body seeing.
“Longing for Sight” is a work by seeingistouching, the studio/laboratory of photographers Laetitia Boulud and Alex de Jong.

“Longing for Sight” consists of two experiential spaces: a fully dark space, a true camera obscura, where a tracing of sounds, scents and
tactile sensations takes the observer on a journey towards a state that is beyond seeing and so explores every human beingʼs journey
from pre-sight to sight. Contrasting this is a light hole built in the middle of this dark space: here sequences of images and sounds evoke
our most intimate and early memories as we cross over from pre-sight to sight. This lighted dome is a common space, and seeks to
impart a communal experience of sounds and of images as an exchange between seeingistouchingʼs photographers, Laetitia Boulud
and Alex de Jong, and between themselves and the world of sentient beings. In the light hole the sequences change according to the
input received from online editor software that can be externally controlled, so observers' experiences are controlled dependent on the
input of other human beings that are not present in the space itself.

Friday, March 12, 2010

 structure
A large free form space will be designed, with the black space being built out of industrial felt, to light-proof an existing space, 20 x 20m.
Hypersonic sound speakers and eowave sensors are used for the sound design and as triggers to involve observersʼ presences to control the
sensory experience in the dark space. The light hole is a proprietary design, including a curved space projector and sound system that shows a
video and sound sequence that is controlled through an online editor, external to the space. The dome is designed in such a way that it is
comfortable to be in, so that it may be a refuge also, a space where visitors can be for a while and rest. An ante-room provides the entrance to
the dark space: the light is gradually dimmed so that visitors may become acclimatized to the dark. Prints and a limited edition book will be on
sale online and at the venue.

Friday, March 12, 2010

 a dark place
We offer a place where unseen memories are collected. A place

of isolation and of expanse, where inner and outer meet. A place

that is so intimate that it needs to be shared. A place where you

can wander around and feel safe. A place to get lost in. A place

that allows you to be guided towards seeing beyond. A place to

rest in and to dare, where control and the loss of it are two sides

of the same coin. A place that acknowledges all the unseen, all

the disharmony, the edge. A place that is between death and life.

A playground for anyone so that the rules to which the world

operates can be rebuilt and wounds and scars can be healed. It

is a shameless place, where all pretenses can be dropped. A raw

place. 

Friday, March 12, 2010

 a light hole
The light hole is a pre-sight space. It is a space where pre-conscious

memories, the memories containing fleeting, half conscious emotions,

the DNA of our essence  are translated into images and sounds. If we

die, sounds linger longest, and in this light hole too it is what remains

with us most, after all the images have faded. The space is universal

and specific at the same time. This is its essence. It is a speechless

space, a light hole in a dark universe. When you listen, feel, touch, no

matter whether youʼre scared of going there or not, something will

present itself to you there. The light hole is the inner space in yourself,

already enlightened. It stands for places in our shared sub-conscious

that we constantly long for, that we are attracted to but don't know why

yet.

Friday, March 12, 2010

 beyond seeing
In a tradition of postmodern critique and in inspiration from Jacques Lacan, we ask what is it that the seen is hiding, and what blindspots are created, intentionally

or otherwise, by the conventions of the visual? Are visual blindspots related to emotional ones? What is it that we distract ourselves from seeing?

The saturated visibility and sharpness of the conventional visual is distracting us from the validity of our subjective inner eye. Thus, our encounter with

photographs both seen and unseen set the scope and framework of this exhibition, where physical, conventional blindness serves as a leading metaphor hinting

towards a proposition for a deeper sense of seeing. This encounter captures an intuition. The spoken word, present as an audio “trail” translates and mediates

that fleeting yet ever present depth, a void of realization that is visible in the visual as trails, hints – signs left behind of that which is desirable, following Lacanʼs

ʻObject Petit aʼ. Precluding sight invites the observer to transcend mere spectatorship; leave a mark, engage and entangle. Our invitation of the viewer to lose

sight, therefore, also expresses the desire to push photography beyond eye-seeing. The photographic work is presented as a continuous stream of images, a mix

& match playground based on the infinite possibilities of interlacing one thought to another. This process contains no exclamation points. Each slowly unfolding

photographic stream moves according to its own inner rhythm. The tempo is subjective, not declarative. This work-process and its particular look and feel,

reflects the desire to limit, blur and otherwise interfere with normal eyesight in order to attain that elusive, subtly subjective (and thus intuitively honest, truthful,

close to home) quality of movement, tone and volume – a culmination of softness; the softness that unveils behind from, or is trapped by a misleading sharpness.

This process led us towards abandoning the visual towards the touch and towards sound. Seeing becomes sensing. The blinding white origin filled with a

whiteness vibe, is expressed in the “light hole” at the heart of the exhibition. The structure of a white dome (alluding to snow blindness, but also to the barren

lunar landscape and to the shape of the eyeball) reveals a confined, secret space, flooded with light. Within it, images corresponding to this overwhelming

whiteness are screened on the domeʼs inside.

Here, the journey to the source is completed.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Friday, March 12, 2010
 alex de jong
About two years ago i went blind and at first i thought that i wanted to kill myself. Of course the interesting thing was that i was a photographer too. I
felt like a stranger, a tourist, in the world of blindness and a stranger in the world of sight that i had just left.
I belonged no where, i was in a no-place all the time. Space around me dropped away, the feeling of my  own body dropped away, and as my brain
went about slowly adapting itself to not eye-seeing, i became an ear, a hand, touch, became the wind on my skin  and the rain, as i started to
navigate an endless ocean. Until one day i thought that i could actually make photographs of what i felt under my feet. the guiding lines, broken  
stones, anything that i could feel beneath me, my anchor to the earth. I found that i still loved the sound the shutter was making, even if i  could not
see my own photographs, that were slowly fading from my memory, one by one. Just like faces had started doing.
There is a dark space there, that only seems empty, but where everything is potential. A space of only becoming, everything flow, nothing fixed, all
relative, a travel through time. sound carries this, and scent, and touch, the wind against the skin, a stolen bit of conversation, the sound of rain and
of thunder and of trees. That is a place where you cannot get to through only seeing. You  have to look deeper, you have to look beyond. Laetitia saw
my images and hauled them and me into the light. At first I distrusted this, because keeping the photographer alive in me was such a hard won thing.
However what I hadnʼt counted on was tracing how this work, as a gesture both is touched and touches itself on the innermost lifestream, the flow of
the heart, the way the mind perceives directly our own and othersʼ true nature. A dialogue is needed to bring this out, it needs the hands of two
people working to touch on everything that finds its place in the heart.

Friday, March 12, 2010

 laetitia boulud
Now itʼs clear to me that in my pre-sighted memory, I saw something that struck me. Something I shouldn't have seen. This froze my eyes open
and my being became alert. It is as if i saw a secret. That caused a feeling of loneliness, I've been looking for someone to tell a story to ever
since . 
That moment determined my way of being. that alert sensor-like state leads me to longing for rest, and a search for that other being to explain to
me what that was, that i saw.
At first constructing the light hole was about frozen memories, icy, cold, white and harsh, blinding. It was the strongest structure that i wanted,
somewhere I knew could melt, if I stayed there long enough, watching it and feeding it constantly. So there I lived a parallel, inner life with the
notion of sharpness, awareness, through the cracks of the light hole and the change in the light that was coming from the out side which most of
the time was complete darkness, the world of the "others".
Over time i met Alex. He has shared with me a way of looking at that by showing me his universe, the dark parts and the white hole. His offer was
to keep the fire going while I take care of my inner self, and go into the light hole. Trusting in that sense is no issue, since I knew he has some of
my memories registered somewhere in his subconsciousness, as he had shot them before meeting me. This encouraged me to invite all the pre-
conscious presences to augment those vivid memories. The only difference was that I was no longer isolated.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Friday, March 12, 2010
 budget

7500 - Photographic Printing!

7500 - Audio production!
3000 - Video production!
3500 - Artistic Consultancy and advice!
9000 - Books, 20 copies, pre-sold, production of merchandize and catering!
5000 - Projection Dome
10000 - Space Design: industrial felt, sensors, software, programming, HSS system

45500 - Total!

Friday, March 12, 2010

 contact

Laetitia Boulud
Tel Aviv
skype: letisation77

Alex de Jong
Rotterdam
skype: urbandiscount

seeingistouching@gmail.com

Friday, March 12, 2010

 cvʼs
Laetitia Boulud Alex de Jong
Born 1975, Montréal | Lives and Works in Tel-Aviv and Paris. Born 1963, born in The Netherlands | Lives in Rotterdam and Paris

Education: Education:
1992-1997 "Camera Obscura". School of visual arts. Tel-Aviv. Israel 1984 - 1988 "Foto MTS" - Royal Academy of the Arts, The Hague
1988 - 1993 Leiden University, SOAS London - PhD. Indo-Iranian Languages and Cultures
Solo Exhibitions:
Solo exhibitions:
2006- 'Photographix'. Gallerie Les Recreateurs. Paris 2004-”tales from the goatshed”- Amsterdam
2005- 'papa'. Studio M.G. Tel-Aviv 2006-”Actes de Décès” - Rotterdam
2002- 'Paris, 2002, apetite!'. French institute Gallery. Tel-Aviv 2007-”immortals”- SIME, Stockholm

Group exhibitions: Group exhibitions:

2005-“KADK5” - Kunst Aan de Kade, Rotterdam
2009- 'Where The Fashion Is Art'. Rawart Gallery. Tel-Aviv 2006-“KADK6” - Kunst Aan de Kade, Rotterdam
2009- 'Plan B'. Primitive show room. Curators: Keren Bar-Gil & Dana Staiger. Tel-Aviv 2006-“Rotterdam, May 14th” - Kunst Aan de Kade Rotterdam
2008- 'Future repertoire'. Many institutes. Curator: Doron Polak. Tel-Aviv
2008- 'Secret art project'. Many institute. Curator: Doron Polak. Tel- Aviv Multimedia/Digital
2008- 'nisuy kelim'. Curator Moran Shuv. Tel-Aviv 1999-“Lifetree” -Pulse, Amsterdam
2007- 'And then there is life'. Amahoro Gallery. Saint-Marten. West indies 2000-“Dottism” - Dottism w/ 180 Agency
1997- 'Introducing teachers'. Dada Gallery. Tel-Aviv 2000/2001-“SCATTER CRYSTALS” - Consultancy Performance Art - Method 5, London
1995- 'White night'. Lilienbloom Space. Curators: Nir Nader & Erez Harodi. Tel-Aviv 2004- “Scanr” - Czar/CCCP, Amsterdam
2007-“L1v0nl1ne - Digital Immortality Machine” - w/ Academy of Arts HKU, Utrecht
Upcoming Exhibitions:
Video
2010- 'Longing for Sight' with Alex De Jong. Artistic Advisor: Avi Pitchon. 2007-“The Internet Is Making Us Immortal”. Result, Sweden
2010- 'Stranger Immigrant': Group Exhibition. Showing: Aim Deueluski .Tel-Aviv
2010- 'From Sketchbook To Object'. Group Exhibition. Curator: Laetitia Boulud and Dr. Michal Popowsky Publications:
1996-“Maar U Ziet Er Helemaal Niet Joods Uit” Vassallucci, Amsterdam
Publications: 1997-“Machoʼs en Prinsessen” Vassallucci, Amsterdam
2008- A5 Magazine. portrait issue 2006- “Flânerie, a Mala of Photographs”, Artbook, Rotterdam
2007- White Book. L.B Publications
Upcoming Shows:
2010-"Longing for sight" with Laetitia Boulud; Artistic Advisor: Avi Pitchon.
2010-''From Stranger to Immigrant": Showing: Aim Deualuski .Tel-Aviv

Friday, March 12, 2010