AV-Performance, 9-channel video, 2.0 stereo sound
with Tobias Herzog
States of the primordial and apocalyptical are subject to myths and mythology – as are images, imaginaries and narratives of a raw, untouched ‹nature›, rooted deeply in cultural histories. Mediated realities and visual cultures strongly impact our understanding of ‹nature› as a self-contained entity – one that is seemingly ever often suggested to be ‹sublime› and ‹pure› the further the climate crisis evolves (e.g. booming nature documentaries or ‹nature›-travel blogs, nature photography instagram). «autopo[i]etic khaos» is a poetic media experiment investigating cyclicity of chaos in times of ecological change through analog and digital signaling, trying to reflect upon the inability of (sub-)systems to perceive themselves as a whole. Niklas Luhman called this inability «autopo[i]etic:
«The whole cannot be a part of the whole at the same time. Any attempt of this kind would merely create a difference in the system: the difference of that part which represents the totality of the system within the system vis-a-vis all the other parts» (Niklas Luhmann, Ecology and Communication, 1989).
«All is electronically composed starting from the notes of a cello, and the same mixture of analogue and digital we find in Janis Polars flux of images, that are live performed on 9 screens. The basis of the highly elaborated images on the screen are nothing but realist moving images of nature: water, forest, clouds. The interplay of reality and abstraction is at the core of the immersive experience, but the immersion itself is never completely accomplished. The installation of 9 screens builds a concave shape that creates the three-dimensional effect. The depth accompanies the immersive experience, but a part of the projection also stresses the presence of the screens as objects, thereby breaking the cinematic suspension of disbelief. Analogue/digital, real/abstract, immersive/object-like: [The work] aims to make mind and body conflate but through the play of partition and connection of those dichotomies.»
review giuseppe di salvatore (critic, filmexplorer.ch)
