Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts

At the international theatre festival METEOR 2017 you can see results from the research- and collaborative project Blind Spot, where BEK is one of the collaborators.

Blind Spot – Staring Down the Void

The performance Blind Spot – Staring Down the Void is playfully presented by a group of artists spanning several genres, who share an interest in our sense of vision and how it shapes the human experience.

The blind spot, when referring to the eye, is an obscuration of the visual field. According to Scholarpedia it occurs naturally where the optic nerve and blood vessels protrude behind the eye. Blindness is the absence of vision. Some experience it as darkness, others as nothing in particular. The blind spot also acts as a metaphor for the relationship between the visible and the invisible, the static and the fluid, the obvious and the ignored. The blind spot has an almost uncomfortable presence, right in the center of our attention.

Art and media largely rely on our sense of vision. Artists challenge this through questioning concepts, politics, religion, and morals of our society. However, our consciousness and our eyes are having more difficulty than ever in attempts to compensate for the blind spot. Peter Bexte wrote that the history of vision in the arts field has to be supplemented by the history of blindness, and posed a question that could only be asked by an art historian: Why is the blind spectator so prominent in art history?

Blind Spot – Staring Down the Void is a collaboration between The Norwegian Theatre Academy, BEK – Bergen Center for Electronic Art. BIT Teatergarasjen, Tranzit Foundation Bucharest, Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin, Canada Council of the Arts, Conseils des Arts et lettres Québec (after dance Berlin) and The Norwegian Artistic Research Programme.

With: Marcio Carvalho, Farid Fairuz, Ingvild Holm, Karen Kipphoff, Trond Lossius, Carole Nadeau.
Others: Patricia Canellis, Elizabet Damyanova, Nik Haffner, Svein Ove Kirkhorn, Cecilie Ullerup-Schmidt, Craig Wells, Tolga Balci.

Read more about METEOR 2017 and reserve tickets here.

Camera Lucida drawings by Karen Kipphoff.