Leonardo Reviews LEONARDO REVIEWS Aegina Academy by situating its theme pear behind huge piles of reels. Editor-in-Chief: Michael Punt within the wider framework of Gustav Deutsch’s films investigate the very Managing Editor: Bryony Dalefield Deutsch and Hanna Schimek’s work. mechanisms of cinema and perception, Light/Image/Illusion opened with commenting on the artistic expres- Associate Editors: Robert Pepperell an exhibition cycle and lectures by sions of the intrinsic qualities of the and Dene Grigar neuroscientist Richard L. Gregory and medium. This approach is most clearly A full selection of reviews is pre-cinema specialist Werner Nekes at exemplified in the series Film ist., which published monthly on the LR web site: the Goethe-Institut in Athens. In the can be interpreted as a deconstruction <leonardoreviews.mit.edu>. following symposium in Aegina, orga- of film in terms of language and move- ISSN: 1559-0429 nized by philosopher Fay Zika, interna- ment. As Tom Gunning has pointed tional specialists from the disciplines of out in his article “Film ist. A Primer art education, art history, philosophy, for a Visual World,” this project can be media and film studies, and natural and defined as the first film theory on film social sciences (especially psychology, [1]. It now becomes clear, however, that REVIEW ARTICLE neuroscience and computer science) Deutsch and Schimek have ambitions pointed out various related aspects that lie beyond the mere deconstruc- such as the psychological and physio- tion of movement and time or an analy- logical preconditions of perception sis of the interrelation between image HE EGINA CADEMY T A A , (see, for example, the work of Freeman, and language in the cinematographic A FORUM FOR ART AND Kubaczek, Pircher, Venieri and Vid- experience. SCIENCE: LIGHT/IMAGE/ nyánszky), veridical representation This becomes most apparent in ILLUSION and fictional construction as in virtual their work in Aegina, in particular in Organized by Gustav Deutsch and reality or other new media environ- Deutsch’s camera obscura in Perdika, Hanna Schimek, 14–22 May 2005, ments ( Jahrmann, Klett and Sarris) which is an integrated work of art Aegina, Greece. Forum web site: and an emphasis on art education and embedded in the landscape and culture <www.light-image.net>. perspectives on the history of technolo- in a gentle and modest way characteris- gies of optics and media art (Hyman, tic of Deutsch and Schimek’s film work, Reviewed by Martha Blassnigg. E-mail: Peternak, Punt, Santorinaios and which is also simultaneously personal <[email protected]>. Zielinski). With a strong emphasis on and private, and generous and public. philosophy, art education and neu- The camera obscura in Perdika is situ- The Aegina Academy, a cultural forum ropsychology, the symposium encour- ated at the southwest end of the island for art and science, was founded by the aged a stimulating discussion forum in and has already become a major attrac- Austrian artists Gustav Deutsch and a small but highly specialized commu- Hanna Schimek, with the aim to “con- nity with outreaches to the public via tribute to the promotion of independ- several art educational and exhibition projects, public lectures and guided Reviews Panel: Peter Anders, Fred Allan Anders- ent and critical dealings with media, son, Wilfred Arnold, Roy Ascott, Curtis Bahn, thus taking a step in the direction of tours. A fuller account of the sympo- Claire Barliant, René Beekman, Roy R. Behrens, democratising the media” (Schimek sium and events at the Aegina Academy Andreas Broeckmann, Annick Bureaud, Chris and Deutsch, press release). In the can be found at <www.light-image.net>. Cobb, Robert Coburn, Donna Cox, Sean Cubitt, The Aegina Academy emerged from Nina Czegledy, Shawn Decker, Margaret Dolinsky, background of their pioneering film Dennis Dollens, Luisa Paraguai Donati, Victo- work, Deutsch and Schimek opened up a generous gesture by an individual ria Duckett, Maia Engeli, Enzo Ferrara, Deborah their private laboratory on the beauti- artist and is a reflection of Deutsch’s Frizzell, Bulat M. Galeyev, George Gessert, Elisa ful island Aegina not only to the public, energy in his creative work with the Giaccardi, Thom Gillespie, Artur Golczewski, inhabitants and Greek artists and scien- film medium and his exploration of Allan Graubard, Dene Grigar, Diane Gromala, public interfaces. Originally trained as Rob Harle, Craig Harris, Josepha Haveman, tists, but also to invited scientists and Paul Hertz, Amy Ione, Stephen Jones, Richard artists of international standing, allow- an architect, Deutsch became an inde- Kade, Curtis E.A. Karnow, Nisar Keshvani, ing them to participate in a discussion pendent filmmaker in the late 1980s Julien Knebusch, Daniela Kutschat, Mike Legget, and exhibition forum, contained in a and is often mentioned in the context Roger F. Malina, Jacques Mandelbrojt, Robert A. of the contemporary Austrian avant- Mitchell, Rick Mitchell, Mike Mosher, Axel cultural project called the Aegina Acad- Mulder, Kevin Murray, Frieder Nake, Maureen emy. First realized in 2003 with the garde. His work, however, eludes any A. Nappi, Angela Ndalianis, Simone Osthoff, topic Light/Image/Reality, the Aegina clear categorization and stands out Jack Ox, Robert Pepperell, Kjel yngve Petersen, Academy followed up its debut with a through its originality and particu- Cliff Pickover, Patricia Pisters, Michael Punt, theme focused on the interrelation larity, consisting as it does entirely of Harry Rand, Sonya Rapoport, Edward Shanken, early film footage. This material is Aparna Sharma, Shirley Shor, George K. Short- among light, image and illusion, com- ess, Joel Slayton, Christa Sommerer, Yvonne prising a symposium, public lectures, thoroughly researched by Deutsch and Spielmann, David Surman, Pia Tikka, David art-education projects and workshops, Schimek, and they have become famil- Topper, Rene van Peer, Stefaan van Ryssen, exhibitions and film screenings. This iar faces in film archives around the Ian Verstegen, Stephen Wilson, Arthur Woods, Soh Yeong. review gives a brief overview of the world, where they mostly seem to disap- ©2006 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 257–276, 2006 257 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2006.39.3.262 by guest on 26 September 2021 tion. It is the world’s first camera cinema specialist may have tended to recent work: their picture collection obscura with a 360˚ panorama, sited at investigate the origins of these images Atlas, an image library containing more an optimal freestanding location sur- in order to situate them in the context than 2,000 images. Pursuing an idea rounded by sea, islands and inland of a narrative or of film history in gen- of art historian Aby Warburg (1866– mountains. It is really a camera obscura eral, Kino-Illusion inhibited any such 1929), who towards the end of his life rotunda, a cylindrical wooden building formalization. The displayed images expressed his core ideas on art history constructed by Deutsch and the archi- asked for contemplation rather than in his famous picture atlas Mnemosyne, tect Franz Berzl and realized in collabo- contextualization and held the viewer’s panels with an assemblage of diverse ration with Gavrillos Michalis (see attention. This strategy was comparable images from different media (maps, Color Plate H). When the visitor enters with the moment during the projection photographs of paintings, drawings, from the startling bright light of the process when the images are halted in etc.), Deutsch and Schimek produce island into the dark, it takes time for the gate for a fragment of a second, image collages centering on the subject the eyes to adjust before, almost magi- while the shutter of the Maltese cross of light and image. Atlas, named after cally, there appear inverted images on interrupts the light beam and as a the two symposia “Light/Image/Real- the 12 surrounding translucent screens. consequence enforces the illusion of ity” and “Light/Image/Illusion,” has After approximately 15 to 20 minutes, continuous movement in our visual been presented during the Aegina the eyes become fully adapted and are perception. Kino-Illusion’s evocation festival in 2003 and 2005, and also at able to perceive small details such as of contemplation suggested that it is in the contemporary art museum Lentos the waves or even birds. Because the 12 our minds that these images move, start in Linz in 2004 and was also exhibited holes in the round wooden construc- to move or cease to move; they initiate in the Kunsthalle in Vienna. Either on tion overlap in the throw of their pro- not only virtual visual movement but light boards lit from below (in Linz), jection, a small section of each screen is also a freezing of the stream of thought screened as image show from a DVD repeated and creates a complex visual interrelating the associations between (Aegina 2005) or as light-box– experience wherein an object, for single frames. More than movement, projected images on the façade of the example, can appear three times on Kino-Illusion characterized the various Kunsthalle in Vienna in June 2005, the three successive screens. This artwork time qualities involved in the cinema flow of pictures plays with our percep- in public space is maintained by a experience by slowing down the time tion of sequential images, creating guard from the village of Perdika and of the difference between the image illusions by false references and associa- has apparently gained great popularity sequences to a point zero: The frag- tions. Warburg’s crucial insights are amongst the inhabitants of the island, ments created a sense of timelessness. reflected in the interrelation between who call it Panagitsa (“small chapel”). Because they were not entities in them- the images, in which he saw archetypi- It is particularly appreciated by young selves, such as still photography usually cal meanings in the movement beyond lovers replaying some of the kiss-in-the- presents, these images were open to all the visible shapes and an invigoration tunnel films that were so popular in sides for associative framing, something of the Dionysian principle in art.