Open Lecture Programme Friday 12th October

Re:place  Open lecture programme. 

Friday 12 October 10.00 - 15.00Lecture room, 4th. floor, C. Sundtsgt 53, Nordnes

Bill Rankin 

Invisible Landscapes

Most maps present a two-tiered vision of the world; there is the topographic “base map” that shows the solid, neutral, physical world, and then there is “thematic” content overlaid on top. This simple act of laying makes a powerful ontological claim: it creates a dichotomy of primary and secondary, permanent and temporary, visible and invisible. What happens when we discard this hierarchy and take the temporary, invisible, or statistical as our solid ground? Focusing on these “invisible landscapes” creates a new sense of place that is simultaneously disorienting and liberating. Space itself is likewise no longer an empty container waiting to be filled; it is instead an active construction of identity, law, political economy, and historical memory.

Bill Rankin is a historian and cartographer. His mapping activity is focused on reimaging everyday urban and territorial geographies as complex landscapes of statistics, law, and history. His maps have appeared in publications and exhibitions throughout the US and Europe, including articles in Perspecta, Harvard Design Magazine, and National Geographic and shows at Harvard University, Pratt Institute, the Cartographic Bienalle in Lausanne, the Triennalle di Milano, and the Toronto Images Festival; his maps also traveled for several years with ICI’s “Experimental Geographies” exhibit. His historical research is about the politics of cartography and navigation in the twentieth century. He teaches at Yale University, where he is an assistant professor of the history of science.

www.radicalcartography.net

Inger Lise Hansen

Travelling Fields

Inger Lise Hansen’s recent works focus on particular phenomena occurring through a change of perspective and animated camera movements, as a way of redefining a place and its geography. These films document landscape and architectural elements across a series of diverse locations from a shopping centre in Linz to the deserted landscapes of the Kola Peninsula in north-

western Russia.

Inger Lise Hansen will present some earlier works and new films.

Inger Lise Hansen studied Fine Art at University of East London and Central-St.Martins College of Art & Design and Filmmaking at San Francisco Art Institute. Her films have been screened and exhibited in international institutions such as OK Center Contemporary Art 

in Linz, Austria, Rotterdam Film Festival, Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, National Gallery, 

London  (“Truth or Dare” Film Season), Académie Lebanese des Beaux-arts, Sin el Fil, 

Lebanon, Galerie National du Jeu de Paume, Paris  (Rencontre International), Gasworks Gallery, London (“Blink” artists’ animation exhibition). Tate Modern, London (Architecture Week; “Housing Problems”).

www.ingerlisehansen.com

Clement Valla

The Universial Texture

I collect Google Earth images. I discovered strange snapshots where the
illusion of a seamless and accurate representation of the Earth’s surface seems to break down. At first, I thought they were glitches, or errors in the algorithm, but looking closer, I realized the situation was actually more interesting — these images are not glitches. They are the absolute logical result of the system. They are an edge condition—an anomaly within the system, a nonstandard, an outlier, even, but not an error. These jarring moments expose how Google Earth works, focusing our attention on the software. They are seams which reveal a new model of seeing and of representing our world – as dynamic, ever-changing data from a myriad of different sources – endlessly combined, constantly updated, creating a seamless illusion.

Clement Valla (Brooklyn, NY) is an artist working with algorithmic systems. He pushes problem-solving logic to irrational ends. His recent work examines copies, repetition and reproduction in Chinese ‘Oil-Painting Factories’ and corwdsourced online drawing tools. Valla wonders about the blurring boundary between human creativity and computational interpretation.
Valla received a BA from Columbia University in 2001, where he studied architecture. After working for architects in the USA, France, and China, Valla began using computers and digital technologies in his own work. He received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in Digital+Media.

www.clementvalla.com