Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts

In collaboration with Ørjan Amundsen
Time: 18 November, 18:15 CET
Venue: Østre, Østre Skostredet 3
This lecture will be streamed live at vimeo.com/bekdotno

Today, anticipation produces a temporality that is oriented towards both the present moment and the undefined future. Slowness, for some societies, is a privilege, and for others, a danger to life; the disruption of synchronicity can be an act of resistance, but could also be an act of violence.

Focusing on the technological production of temporalities, Lesia Vasylchenko will in this talk introduce the concept of the “Chronosphere”. Taking the vantage point of the role of satellite data in the current war in Ukraine, the talk will focus on the role of images in the weaponization of time and how it constructs temporal scales in rapidly forming chronostructures both on, and around our planet.

From zeptoseconds of satellite data production used to observe the planet 24/7, to deep time of ecological trauma caused by war, “Chronosphere” explores the interconnections between human politics and cultures; natural environments and artificial intelligence; synchronized micro and macro scales; between seeing and sensing time through the means of the photographic image.

How does the Chronosphere operate? How to talk about time as a unit of scale? How is it used to shape planetary infrastructures, politics, societies and histories? What is the role of the image as a carrier of time in the current state of the world?

In “Chronosphere”, Vasylchenko will expand on her already existing body of work by using speculative terminology such as “Tachyonic data” (from the word tachyon: a hypothetical particle that travels faster than light). Tachyonic data is technologically predicted information extracted from pattern recognition and its representation. This form of information is the documentation of a future event, which contains both information from the retrospective past and a prospective future.

Lesia Vasylchenko’s “Chronosphere” is part of an on-going artistic research on operational imagery and computational temporalities. The performative lecture will consist of a narrated video presentation and live sound performance, produced in collaboration with the artist and musician Ørjan Amundsen.

LESIA VASYLCHENKO

Lesia Vasylchenko (born in Kyiv, Ukraine) works across a range of media including video, photography and installation. In her research-based practice Vasylchenko is looking into encounters between visual cultures, media technologies and chronopolitics. She is a co-curator of the artist-run gallery space Podium and a founder of STRUKTURA. Time, a cross-disciplinary initiative for research and practice within the framework of visual arts, media archaeology, literature, and philosophy. She holds a degree in Journalism from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and Fine Arts from Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Vasylchenko has been recently shown among others at the MUNCH Museum and Henie Onstad Art Center. Her work is part of the collection of Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA in Helsinki, Finland.

Ørjan Amundsen

Ørjan Amundsen is an Oslo-based artist and musician. His practice involves mainly video, text and music and central to his artistic method is appropriation. In his works he explores how digital media, information technologies and montage techniques shape our perception and imagination of reality. Amundsen has previously exhibited and screened works at Kunstnernes Hus Kino, Oslo; Coast Contemporary, Trondheim; Arctic Moving Image & Film Festival, Harstad; Whitechapel Gallery, London and recently had a solo exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall. 

Return to the full symposium programme.

Photos: 1) Tachyoness, 2022. Courtesy of the artist. 2) Sensing The Near Real Time, 2023 Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. Foto Nabeeh Samaan. 3) Mourning For The Future, 2023 Foto: Øystein Thorvaldsen 4) About The Ruins, 2022 Kunstnernes Hus. Foto Istvan Virag. 5) Lesia Vasylchenko