marten berkman
art, film, photography of the Earth
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Art Projects and Portfolios
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Remote Sensibility is the theme of my current artistic
practice. Using the parameters of new visual technologies in interpreting and
reflecting landscapes, I wish to provide an experience of the many and
complex layers of meaning and relationships between the Earth and global
industrial culture. In this process, art may challenge assumptions and
dualities, providing a contemporary vehicle for sensitive relationship with
the planet's remote and "wild" places. |
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Artist's Statement Remote Sensibility "Western
civilization is in danger of building a wall of rationality through which
feeling cannot penetrate" Dr. Ian Player, 8th
World Wilderness Congress, Anchorage, Alaska 2005 While global industrial
culture impacts remote environments around the globe, what relationship do we
have with these places which we consume but do not inhabit? If remote sensing, from satellite
imaging to seismic blasting, creates a picture of the landscape according to
our material needs, how do we create a picture according to our immaterial
needs? What role does my art have in discovering contemporary meanings in
"wild" landscapes for global industrial culture? These are the
questions which underpin Remote Sensibility, an artistic process which
explores visual tools and language that transcend industrial culture's
classical duality between the human and the wild. This work explores the
roots of our duality with nature, and challenges our assumptions that human industriousness
is at odds with the rest of the natural world. In a process
which breaks away from the two dimensions of the classic landscape
photograph, Remote Sensibility explores the representation of multiple
dimensions, and layers of meaning which coalesce in what we call "the
wild". Remote Sensibility attempts to dissolve the boundaries of
landscape as projected by our intellect, to experience physical and
immaterial "nature" outside of a constructed duality. The
interesting phenomenon, is that the landscape then invariably includes
ourselves, Using mono and
stereo photography and videography (lens and pin-hole based), photo collage,
construction, sound, and human movement, Remote Sensibility explores the
intricate and ancient connection between human and planetary fecundity; the
parallels and beauty between human and non-human metamorphosis of matter; and
the patterns and forms which are a continuum from the cellular to the
planetary. Remote Sensibility, as a practice, process and series of artifacts,
is an experimental and experiential
vehicle for wonder in this vessel of our consciousness known as life. Remote Sensibility © marten
berkman 2003 |
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An anaglyphic
stereoscopic image. Anaglyphic glasses (red and cyan filters) are required to
see the image in 3-dimensions. © marten berkman 2003
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Remote Sensibility:
Binocular Sensing Remote Sensibility: Binocular
Sensing is an art installation project consisting of stereoscopic
(3-dimensional) cameras in remote and wild environments, and corresponding
stereoscopic (3-dimensional) projection environments in galleries or other
public spaces thousands of kilometers away. Originally conceived to be viewed
on the web, the project will now involve 1:1 scale projection environments as
demonstrated at the Banff Centre's
Optic Nerve Artist's residency in 2005. This art installation is part of
my education and outreach project entitled "Remote
Sensibility" is supported by the International Polar Year Committee. This installation
will concentrate on remote arctic and subarctic environments, and the
transmission of stereoscopic interpretation of those environments (including
on site environmental and performance art) to distant audiences during the
international Polar Year and beyond. In an age where the impact of industrial
culture on remote environments is not in concert with this culture's
awareness of remote environments, Remote sensibility: Binocular Sensing
dissolves our geographical and perceptual boundaries with an artistic bridge
to the immaterial meanings in the land. In summer of 2006, High Definition stereoscopic stills and video were captured at various locations between 60 and 70 degrees north in Canada's Yukon Territory. In autumn of 2007, a minimum of two pilot web streaming installations will be completed with stereoscopic cameras in remote areas of Canada's subarctic. The first is installed and now active in a fjord of the Cumberland Peninsula on Baffin island in Canada's Nunavut Territory, just kilometers south of the arctic circle. The second will be installed in the subarctic boreal forest just north of the 60th parallel in the Yukon Territory. Transmitted or recorded material is to be viewed by the public in a gallery setting in Nelson, BC in early winter. A portion of this projection will include on-site environmental and performance art. Co-production is being proposed with the Banff New Media Institute in March 2008 to develop 3-dimensional layering and interactivity in the projection environments. Winter 2007-8 will involve research into multiple circumpolar locations for remote stereoscopic cameras and international urban locations for projection environments. In summer 2008 the deployment of multiple stereo camera installations and projection environments will begin, with simultaneous stereo imagery made available through the World Wide Web. Artistic consideration will
be paramount in the location of camera installations. The viewing
environments will aspire to be a spectrum of locations, ranging from
galleries to malls to schools to museums, as well as a publicly accessible
web page. The intent is to dissolve the limitations of our fabricated spaces,
opening doors to the perception of remote and wild places on a first hand and
emotive level. The projections will include both direct and artistically
interpreted recreation of the remote location in 3 dimensions. It must be
remembered that some of the most powerful experiences of place are those
where the place is left to speak for itself. Budget will dictate the extent of the camera installations and viewing environments, as well as the level of technology used. At one end of the spectrum is the possibility to have a custom HD camera setup with solar power supply and data uplink via satellite dish, for live projection on a dual 3500 lumen WXGA polarized data projector system with computer interface. At the other end would be the use of web cams, surveillance software, recording to removable hard drives, treatment of stereoscopic video in an editing suite, and anaglyph projection on similar projectors. Ideally a system which is affordable, portable, and easy to use will facilitate delegation of camera installations, and ensure accessibility for projection/viewing environments. |
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Supporters/Partners in the
project are: Canada
Council for the Arts: Awarded New Media grant for the research,
creation and production of Remote Sensibility: Binocular Sensing. Artivistic: [un] occuppied spaces: transdiciplinary gathering hosting presentation of Remote Sensibility installation, October 2007. Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (KIAC): Odd
Gallery future venue for stereoscopic projection environment installation under their The natural & the manufactured
thematic exhibition and residency program Yukon Arts Society: Arts
Underground Gallery hosted early arctic video installation and sterescopic still imagery October 2006. Banff New Media Institute: co-production of imaging processes and software (using Max/MSP and Jitter) for 3-dimensional layering and interactivity in visualization /projection, tentative March 2008. International Polar Year
Committee:
support through Education and Outreach program; providing partnership opportunities
with related IPY circumpolar projects. Parks Canada: Ivvavik
NP:
hosting of pilot stereoscopic remote camera installation summer 2006 through
the Artists in the Park program. Parks Canada: Auyuittuq NP: hosting of pilot stereoscopic remote camera installation summer 2007. SSI Micro: This northern telecommunications company specializing in engineering and supplying remote internet communications is providing generous support to the pilot installations through donation of high speed wireless web access in Canada's eastern arctic. Canadian Geographic Magazine: hosting of stereoscopic web portal, reference to web site in national magazine, when Remote Sensibility: Binocular Sensing is online. Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society -
Yukon Chapter:
consultation and assistance in coordinating stereoscopic camera installations
in non-designated wilderness areas; hosting of stereoscopic web portal;
communication with galleries currently participating in the Three Rivers visual
art exhibit on tour. Northwestel: This northern telecommunications company specializing in engineering remote communications has expressed interest in exploring partnership for the remote stereoscopic camera installations. Creative Personnel: Marten Berkman is
principal artist, artistic director, and project coordinator/producer. Chad Gubala is
a scientist and engineer with extensive Canadian and international experience
in remote sensing, data networking and transmission. Gail Lotenberg and
LINK
dance company will collaborate with performance in remote landscapes. Two young Yukon artists have
been invited to participate in the pilot installation: Emma Barr:
Visual artist to create environmental art on location Janelle Hardy:
Dancer to choreograph and perform movement piece on location Kim Morgan is
an internationally exhibited interdisciplinary visual artist who will
facilitate location of stereoscopic projection installations in urban
environments. Cate McEwen holds an MA in environmental management, with a specialization in environmental psychology, and will be consulted in the distillation of terrestrial meaning through Remote Sensibility. Sue Staniforth holds an MA in Environmental Education and Resource Management, and works nationally as a consultant in Environmental Education and Research. She will hold youth study groups to assess the delivery and impact of Binocular Sensing. |
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Preliminary
Works in Remote Sensibility My connection with the rest of the natural world has been
innate since childhood, and has pervaded my work throughout my life. Yet I
experience an irony every day, the
seeming dichotomy in our culture between the human and the natural. On the
one hand we can be passionate about wilderness, and on the other passionate
about our industriousness turning that wilderness into commodities we need.
Both perspectives are real, and mutually exclusive. Or are they? Is not our industriousness our own very
nature? Is our footprint essentially dissimilar from any other species
finding or creating its niche on the planet? Where then does the duality and
conflict take place? Is it a matter of disparate meanings overlapping in the
same geography? People care for what has meaning to them, and the meaning
of landscapes may be as diverse as the people on the planet. Photography and
film have been wonderful vehicles for me to reflect the meaning which
landscapes have for me, with those who have a shared experience of wonder and
humility with the Earth. But I appreciate there are many who do not have this
shared experience, and for whom the photograph of place might not have more
meaning than the aesthetic of light and dark, composition and form. Is there
no substitute for the direct experience of place? In our global industrial culture, the experience of wild
places may be no more immediate than through an airplane window or the background
scenery of an automobile ad. Even those living close to wild areas, may have
a livelihood dependent on the unraveling of ecological systems. In each of
these instances, our relationship with place is shaped by the technology we
use. So how can we on the one hand enjoy pretty pictures of
wilderness, yet perpetuate an industrial practice which diminishes the
subject of what we consider aesthetic? What visual language and tools do I
use to effectively reflect meaning in the landscape for a technological
culture which is separated from it? For a culture now physically removed from
large and vibrant ecological systems, can art provide the vehicle for
discovering meaning in the remote environments we are intimately connected to
but never experience first hand? In a technological society, are
technological interfaces our windows of perception into the material and
immaterial qualities of the world? Like the fire ignited in our soul by a
piece of music or a book, is there a contemporary visual palette which will
ignite our consciousness to immaterial experiences, before we have ever
gotten our feet dirty in a wetland or touched the sky from a mountain top? When Dr. George Schaller, the famous biologist, offered
opening remarks at the World Wilderness Congress Wildlife Photographers
Symposium in 2005, he made an interesting point. Photography of the wild had
improved in leaps and bounds over the past 30 years. But that had no parallel
in our behaviour, as the world is ever approaching ecological collapse from human
activity. My work as a photographer is a colossal failure if I have not
actually conveyed the meaning of the rest of the natural world to my
fellow humans. And so I found it necessary, and exciting, to move beyond
the classic landscape photograph, using the very technologies which shape our
lives to become bridges of meaning with the rest of life which shares this
planet with us. One of my early epiphanies in my travels was finding a
stone age tool on the ground not far from the world's largest open pit copper
mine in the Atacama desert, Chile. This early tool was essentially no
different from the massive industrial practice going on today. The massive
mine was simply an extension of our ancient chipping of stone. I began to see
our industriousness as an essential part of our nature, and a part of the
natural world. In most contemporary forms, it is maladaptive, but it is
natural to us nonetheless. So how does global industrial culture mature, to
coexist with instead of terminate other life on the planet?
A big step would be to transcend the duality we have
constructed between the |
concepts of the "human" and the "natural"
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My early Remote Sensibility
pieces explore the metamorphosis of materials by human and geomorphic
activity, suggesting the distinction between the human and the natural as our
own fabrication. Both forms are natural. Only when we realize we are a part
of the landscapes we affect, and that it is a part of us, will we treat it
with as much gratitude, reverence and tenderness as our own children. Seeing
ourselves as part of the big picture, appears essential to rediscover our
original indigenous nature, and be "of a place". For a slide show of
preliminary works in Remote Sensibility, please click here. This work is
elaborated below. |
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In Remote Sensibility #1,
the beauty of transformation of matter through fluvial erosion is compared to
the transformation by life. Life's transformation of matter begins with
fossils of sea shells, followed by a fossil of a plant, followed by a
Neolithic stone tool, and then a contemporary artifact, a metal cog. The
backdrop, while looking like a satellite image of a river system, is actually
a detail of a caribou skull, an implication of the blurred boundaries behind
life forms and habitat, and the many scales of landscapes beyond those
directly perceived by humans. |
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Remote
sensibility #2 simply juxtaposes materials transformed by erosion and by
fabrication. It provides the viewer with an exploration of what essential
boundaries there are, if any, between the natural and the manufactured. |
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Another exercise was taking
the photograph out from behind the glass, mat and frame, to make it as real,
immediate and vulnerable as the subject it depicts. Printed on paper fibers
evident by the torn edges, curling with changes in temperature and humidity,
the photograph as a set of hanging panels, becomes a tactile experience in
itself. |
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The beautiful, vibrant,
pristine landscapes I photograph in the Yukon, are under constant scrutiny for
mineral and energy potential should the commodity markets ever swing in that direction.
What am I actually saying about this profound link between this wild place and
distant markets and consumers when I make a landscape photograph? What visual
language can I use to depict the layers of meaning and relationship in my
interpretation of place?
In the
fall of 2005 I was accepted into the Optic Nerve artist's residency at the
Banff Centre in Alberta to explore this theme. Here I spent seven weeks
continuing to experiment with the boundaries of my medium. It was wonderful.
Mind you, my wife was pregnant at the time, and I owe her the profoundest
gratitude and humility for letting me pursue the growth of my visual language
while she fostered the growth of a new being!
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One work involved
construction of a panoramic landscape image which surpassed our peripheral
vision. The scale of this twelve foot wide panorama actively engaging our
perception beyond the finite boundaries of an image which is contained within
our field of vision. In the middle of the image is text from a public forum
revealing the profound disparity in the experience of meaning of place.
Simultaneous to the breathtaking vista, the viewer cannot ignore the diverse
and ironic layers of relationship in the same geography. |
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A triptych
explores colour fields, scale and contrast to provide an emotive experience
of the elements depicted, water and stone. Instead of composition,
foreground/background to depict a landscape, the viewer experiences subtle
elements intimately, perhaps personally. |
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Stereo viewers recreate the
depth in landscape with stereoscopic photography, giving a powerful sense of
presence with the subject versus the two dimensional image. (You can actually recreate the
effect yourself without a stereo viewer by looking at the stereo image,
crossing your eyes till the left overlaps the right and letting your eye
focus on the apparent third image between the two, which will be three
dimensional) |
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The interesting phenomena is a
remote and inaccessible wild watershed becomes a seemingly tactile experience
to the viewer.
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To view images in a larger
scale, I worked with anaglyph stereoscopy, which basically combines two perspectives
, one filtered red and one blue, into one. When viewed with anaglyph glasses
(red and blue filters on respective eyes), our brain combines the two
photographs as one three dimensional one. |
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I designed
a pinhole camera which could project stereo images on a variety of
translucent materials. My affection for the pinhole comes from the absolute
simplicity of the optics (no lens, simply the passage of light through a
hole) and the emotive quality of the softly textured image it can produce. |
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If you have anaglyph glasses, please click for
an enlargement |
In
'Natural Area, Please Stay Out' I
played with the irony of our culture's nomenclature excluding the natural
from ourselves. I photographed the sign bearing the piece's title with the
stereo pinhole camera. Using photo montage, I inserted a stereoscopic image
of a neolothic tool, seemingly floating in front of the sign, as an ironic
question about our true nature. |
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If you have anaglyph glasses, please click for
an enlargement |
To explore the layers of
meaning in the subject, I use stereoscopic photomontage to reflect elements
overlapping in the same geography. The classic alpine landscape, with the
human filling the frame in supplication are overlain with the web of life in
a semi translucent leaf positioned like an outgoing breath. Perceived three
dimensionally, does the picture provide a vehicle to experience these layers
of meaning and relationship? |
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Using projection, I now took
the anaglyph image to a 1:1 scale with the viewer. It was fascinating to see
people's level of engagement with a virtual space depicting an actual place.
A seemingly tactile experience presented not only landscapes but my interpretation
of meaning through artifacts, both found and created, which I included in
three dimensional photo montages. |
If you have anaglyph glasses,
please click for an enlargement |
And being a film maker, I was
of course inspired to make stereoscopic viideography, also to be projected on a
1:1 scale. I actually created a pinhole stereo video, creating a very
impressionistic depiction of place, and layered in stereoscopic human movement
also shot with a pinhole apparatus. Maria Lantin with the Banff New Media
Institute's Advanced Research Technology Lab at the Banff Centre invited me to
project this experimental work in their visualization lab. The lab is a space
consisting of three rear projection screens equipped with stereo polarized data
projectors. I was able to see my work on one screen, and it confirmed the
potential of this medium in portraying place and its layers of meaning
artistically and dynamically.
And so, Remote Sensibility
continues to evolve, in providing an emotive bridge for industrial culture with
the remote reaches of the Earth.
All
images and text © marten berkman 2005
&n