Viewmaster The Series - Episode 1

VIEWMASTER 2007 - 2010
Heike Langsdorf, Laurent Liefooghe & Ula Sickle


Performance: February 2nd, 8:30pm
Workshop: February 3rd - 5th
Conference: February 26th, 2-5pm
w/ Performance by Inari Salmivaara @ 8pm

The Series:

After touring since 2007 with a performance and installation for which
they developed the illusion-machine “Viewmaster”, Heike Langsdorf,
Laurent Liefooghe and Ula Sickle now offer a chance for others to explore the possibilities of this ‘magic‘ tool. “The Series” invites artists from different disciplines to use the Viewmaster to produce a new work. Works emerging can range from cinematic, performative, visual and even auditive attempts to make use of the tool. Each time the Viewmaster moves to another residency location, a new work is added to the series by a guest artist.

The first installment will be co-produced by Huis a/d Werf in Utrecht, where Finnish choreographer Inari Salmivaara will explore the box during a two-week residency in February 2010. The workshop and residency will be accompanied by a seminare for the PHD students of the Media and performance department of the University of Utrecht on the topic of ‘Liveness’.

@ Huis a/d Werf, Utrecht


For more about Inari
Huis a/d Werf

Viewmaster in rekto : verso

Kijken is de Kunst
Wouter Hillaert
 / redactioneel

Abstracte, hedendaagse dans als een bezwerende, bijna hallucinatorische trip, waar je je ogen bij uitwrijft? Het kan. Zo’n ervaring bood deze zomer de installatie Viewmaster op Theater Aan Zee. Het Brusselse trio Heike Langsdorf, Ula Sickle en Laurent Liefooghe bouwde een simpele triplex box met twee kamers die in een rechte hoek op elkaar aansluiten. Een schuin spiegelglas scheidt beide kamers, volgens de principes van de negentiende-eeuwse machine ‘Pepper’s ghost illusion’. Met wisselende belichtingen kun je het publiek, dat via een centraal raam de box inkijkt, de illusie geven dat er twee dansers, elk in hun eigen kamertje, op dezelfde plek dooreenvloeien als geesten, als in een live videoclip. Het zorgde voor een van de hoogst denkbare artistieke ervaringen. Je ogen bij de neus genomen.

Zo zijn er twee soorten kunst die ingrijpen op het kijken zelf. Er is kunst die het erbij moet zeggen dat ze je kijk verandert. En er is kunst die dat gewoon doet, voor iedereen met twee ogen. Creaties à la Viewmaster of beeldend werk als dat van Escher of Magritte gaan naar de essentie van kunst. Ze bevragen heel concreet de objectieve blik waarmee we naar de wereld menen te kijken. Ze vertrekken daarbij niet van voorkennis, maar van de simpele gelijkheid tussen ziende mensen. In die zin bespelen ze ook de essentie van wat een ‘publiek’ is: aanschouwers, viewers . . .

rekto : verso
(for full article)

Viewmaster @ Theater Aan Zee

Viewmaster opened at TAZ / Theater Aan Zee, Oostende 03/08 - 07/08 2009, with 10 performances over 5 days @ the Stadshuis in the city center. An Article about Viewmaster appeared in deMorgen, weekend-edition Aug 1st.

Viewmaster @ Teatr Nowy

Viewmaster @ Teatr Nowy / Warsaw

Viewmaster - upcoming shows

VIEWMASTER
upcoming shows :

30/08/08 _ 20:00
31/08/08 _ 16:00
05/09/08 _ 20:30
06/09/08 _ 21:30
SHUFFLE
Kaaistudios / Brussels
www.kaaitheater.be

08/10/08 _ 22:00
09/10/08 _ 22:00
10/10/08 _ 22:00
11/10/08 _ 22:00
14/10/08 _ 22:00
15/10/08 _ 22:00
ALMOST CINEMA
Vooruit / Gent
www.vooruit.be

Considered a tool for gallery spaces as well as the theaters, the Viewmaster
is a transportable mini-theater and live-cinema machine in one. It’s peculiar
architecture and function is inspired by the Pepper’s Ghost Illusion, a well
known optical trick made popular in the theater during the late nineteenth
century, before the invention of cinema. Using the illusion as a central
mechanism, the Viewmaster produces a cinema based on the sequence
of reflections rather than projected images.

viewmaster @ desingel

After the gallery space of Netwerk / Center for Contemporary Art, Valentines day, saw the Viewmaster open it's doors again, this time on the stage of de Singel in Antwerp as part of the Donderdagen, a monthly program showcasing the work of artists across disciplines.

(scroll down for more on viewmaster)

Viewmaster (2007)

The viewmaster explores pre-cinema technology - using a well know optical illusion called the 'pepper effect', the viewmaster proposes an archaic cinema, one that uses live images in the form of reflections versus projected ones.

Since the invention of projection in the late 19th century, film has become practically synonymous with the cinema or movie theater. Modeled after the traditional theater dispositive, the place where films are shown is a divided space: on the one hand is the screen, acting as a window onto an imaginary depth, and on the other, the auditorium, acting as a single, shared point of view, occupied by an audience that sit immobile in the dark.

The viewmaster reconfigures this traditional set-up, proposing a cinema where auditorium and screen are reversible, where multiple view points are possible and where the visitor can be both viewer and participant within a live image making process.

Based on an optical trick made popular in the theater and predating the invention of projection technology, the viewmaster make use of light, reflection and the presence of the spectators to create an ever changing array of moving images.

Considered a tool for gallery spaces as well as the theaters, the viewmaster was co produced by in Netwerk / Center for Contemporary Art for an exhibition September 15th - October 20th, 2007 with performances the 5th and 20th of October.

next performances -

Dedonderdagen @ DeSingel, Antwerp February 14th
Kaaitheater Studios August 29th - September 7th
Vooruit Gent, Almost Cinema October 7th - 18th


Concept / performance Heike Langsdorf & Ula Sickle concept / architecture Laurent Liefooghe sound design Peter Connelly light design Hans Meijer production management for Rebecca September vzw Natalie Schrauwen With the support of: KC Netwerk Aalst, kunst-werk / f,r,o,g,s - OS, Nadine, wp Zimmer and the Flemish Minister for Youth, Culture, Sport and Brussels Affairs. A Rebecca September production.




Photo: Josephine Hirschi / Film: Sebastian Koeppel