Closed Circuit Systems - residency with the Institute of Neurology at UCL, Plun-Favreau lab.
The focus of this residency is demystifying the lab. I have approached the laboratory through the language of the body and as such have developed an intimate understanding of the physical and emotional architecture of the space. As a consequence of spending time with the various members both individually and as a group I have been able navigate the distance that exists between scientific research and the public by locating, translating and expressing their essence across it. My research findings, through conversation with the lab, artists, writers and theorists will be presented as nodes, a cosmos that explores the space between science and the public and allows the viewer access to these various points of connection and articulation.
Together we have discussed the extensions and limitations of ‘knowing’, systems of control and dissemination, the dynamic of the group and the fear and beauty associated with science. The fragments presented will form a portrait of the members of the lab, a way of knowing at the edges.
Below you will find links to radio shows, events and other research material.
Closed Circuit Systems TEXT
This publication is the culmination of two years of artistic research, conversation and events. It touches on themes of conspiracy, archives, magic and nonsense to present a portrait of the Plun-Favreau lab. A variety of essays, visual work and links to sound and video provide a platform to engage with and become lost in the web created by this residency through which one may begin to navigate the dense space around which science orbits.
Stocked at (London) Forma/Presse books, Tender Books, TACO & Good Press (Glasgow)
Closed Circuit Systems: Space Madness
Forma
Saturday 18th May 2024
3 - 6 pm
This project culminated in the lab being immersed in a long term, experimental sound bath in an attempt to alter the way in which they communicate. When considering language in science there is an evident lack of emotion that may be the source of its inaccessibility. The rigidity in comparison to literature or rhetoric, the need for logic and reason, and as such its impenetrability, creates a marked distance between scientific terminology and the natural processes that they are attempting to describe. Where literature gives language a life of its own, science views it as a ‘necessary but tiresome instrument’ (see Cholodenko. A, ‘The Illusion of Life’) used to convey facts about life which are removed from it. Research carried out by members of a laboratory is repetitive, full of enquiry, and often engaged in failure. There is a rhythm and a life to the enquiry that is lost when the information is finally shared.
Is animation acting in the service of science to represent ‘the real’ or is science also implicated in the creative process? (Diprose & Vasseleu 1995)
Is animation acting in the service of science to represent ‘the real’ or is science also implicated in the creative process? (Diprose & Vasseleu 1995)
Closed Circuit Systems: Shhh
Biblioteka
Wednesday 6th December 2024
6 - 9 pm
Comprehension of an object requires to some extent an opportunity to make contact with context. It should then follow that an alteration of that context may support a shift in understanding.Visual diagrams, green screens and archives are just a few ways in which existing knowledge can be manipulated to suit one’s interest. At a time when ideas of truth and belief are dissolving into one another and the ability to produce and disseminate information with such ease is under scrutiny, we may ask what sort of life force knowledge now has and what tools are available for one that wishes to pose questions.Shhh is a collaboration between Krystle Patel and Jelena Viskovic, aiming to develop a new discursive body of work that continues the inquiry of Closed Circuit Systems, playing with the idea of the library as a transient setting for knowledge production and preservation.
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Closed Circuit Systems: Slime, Sublime, Sublimation
The Horse Hospital
Saturday 26th November 2023
2.30 - 4.30pm
Free, ticketed
https://www.thehorsehospital.com/events/sublime
Fiona Glen, Esther Leslie, Krystle Patel and Maybelle Peters in conversation:
The Sublime is a concept that has been in flux over the years. Fear, beauty, boundlessness and the inability to contain a thing are centred within this mutable term. This dynamic is exciting and historically has placed the individual in the seat of power in an attempt to contain the liquid. However, we can also approach these themes through the action of the uncontainable. What happens when we step away from a constructed position of power and rather open ourselves to a reception of boundlessnes
Saturday 26th November 2023
2.30 - 4.30pm
Free, ticketed
https://www.thehorsehospital.com/events/sublime
Fiona Glen, Esther Leslie, Krystle Patel and Maybelle Peters in conversation:
The Sublime is a concept that has been in flux over the years. Fear, beauty, boundlessness and the inability to contain a thing are centred within this mutable term. This dynamic is exciting and historically has placed the individual in the seat of power in an attempt to contain the liquid. However, we can also approach these themes through the action of the uncontainable. What happens when we step away from a constructed position of power and rather open ourselves to a reception of boundlessnes
Closed Circuit Systems: Conspiracy @ Cubitt Gallery
Thursday 20th October 2023
7-9pm
Investigating information control-
More often than not conspiracy theories are relegated to the fields of madness and paranoia. However, if we take a minute to dismiss the window dressing, what theories often entail are, in fact, seeds: the potentiality of information.
Conspiracy emerges when this potentiality is faced with control, restrictions, dismissal. At which point the seed mutates into something new is not always clear. Emotions battle with ‘objective’ data and are often confronted with a juxtaposition of logic, fact and belief systems which can be unreliable.
The control of information exists both within scientific research and as a consequence of it. This event at Cubitt gallery with Cubitt Community Radio and The Plun-Favreau Lab will explore the languages of conspiracy, dissonance and belief in relation to transparency, exposure and bureaucracy that governs the information we are kept from and given access to.
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7-9pm
Investigating information control-
More often than not conspiracy theories are relegated to the fields of madness and paranoia. However, if we take a minute to dismiss the window dressing, what theories often entail are, in fact, seeds: the potentiality of information.
Conspiracy emerges when this potentiality is faced with control, restrictions, dismissal. At which point the seed mutates into something new is not always clear. Emotions battle with ‘objective’ data and are often confronted with a juxtaposition of logic, fact and belief systems which can be unreliable.
The control of information exists both within scientific research and as a consequence of it. This event at Cubitt gallery with Cubitt Community Radio and The Plun-Favreau Lab will explore the languages of conspiracy, dissonance and belief in relation to transparency, exposure and bureaucracy that governs the information we are kept from and given access to.
The event at Cubitt comprised of a live 2 hour performance/DJ set, featuring verbal accounts from members of the Plun - Favreau lab, personalised mixes and appropriated material. Alongside there were visuals exploring the aesthetic of conspiracy, animated radio telescopes, murder mystery programs, animals, animation and science/medical visuals. Viewers were invited to sit in the intimate space of a ‘living room’ and experience the varied and conflicting material that washed over them.
Closed Circuit Systems: Mapping, Magic, Matriarchy
Understanding relationships through a programme of 3 radio shows -
Episode 1: Mapping
For the first episode I am looking at mapping the distance that exists between scientific research and the public, navigating thIe space with vocal exercises performed by individual members of the lab themselves. Through ideas around proprioception, signalling and rhythm I question our relationship with science and the comfort its’ existence brings.
Episode 2: Magic
In the second epsiode I explore the theme of Magic, thinking about how it connects with science, why it feels so relevent right now and what a ‘theory’ of it would sound like.
Episode 3: Matriarchy
The last of a three part special has me thinking about matriarchal structures through the monotony of care, guilty pleasures and the chaos of shared spaces.
Episode 2: Magic
In the second epsiode I explore the theme of Magic, thinking about how it connects with science, why it feels so relevent right now and what a ‘theory’ of it would sound like.
Episode 3: Matriarchy
The last of a three part special has me thinking about matriarchal structures through the monotony of care, guilty pleasures and the chaos of shared spaces.
