Proposal for Istanbul Design Biennale / 2012

SHATTERING THE FRAME

A perfect, four metre square opaque cube hangs towards the center of the exhibition
space. Without any pedestal or any easily visible attachment to floor, wall or ceiling,
it appears to float about 25cm above the gallery floor. A suspended ramp leads
to the only opening at one corner of the cube, through which the observer barely
perceives flickering lights and faint sounds, drawing them inside. Upon entering,
their experience of the piece, and the gallery, is transformed. Outsized, distorted
human figures – in fact the transformed movements and gestures of the gallery
patrons who approach and examine the exterior of the cube – circle the observer,
threatening, challenging and enveloping them in a chaotic blur of movement and
sound. What appeared perfect – invariant, transcendent, timeless, remote, private –
from the outside, upon breaching the physical threshold of the object and breaking the
taboo of distance that separates observer from art-object, becomes chaotic, transient,
proximate, public and audible: the object is only perfect until one touches it.

‘Shattering the frame,’ the proposed installation, is an attempt to explore notions of
perfection / imperfection in the experience of art by challenging traditional modes of
artist / art-object / observer relations. Even today, these relations are often dominated
by relatively inflexible cultural conditions, expectations and taboos, which determine
(among other things) when and how to move through the exhibition space, how to
interact (or not) with the object and the other patrons, and above all the physical
relations of observers to objects and to each other. Under such conditions the ‘perfect’
art-object is framed as timeless yet potentially fragile, encouraging an attitude of
distant reverence.

A city of perpetual human motion, noise and chaos, Istanbul is the antithesis of
such an attitude. It cannot be viewed from a comfortable distance or with remote
reverence; inhabitants and visitors experience an inescapable physical connection
with their immediate environment, literally buffeted by the many frustrating yet life-
giving imperfections of the city. Two central nodes of this physical interrelation
are kinetics and sound. As both in their own ways are ever changing, difficult to
predict and impossible to apprehend, movement and sound run counter to notions of
perfection in traditional Western arts cultures and tend to be de-emphasized.

Reconnecting viewer with viewer through the breached surface of the art-object,
via the ‘imperfect’ nodes of sound and motion, ‘Shattering the frame’ reminds the
observer that art, like the city, can also be kinetic, transient, chaotic, and sometimes
even loud; and that in the milieu of the gallery, just as in the city, s/he is never merely
a viewer, but also an auditor, and above all an actor.

The technical execution of the project is possible with readily available motion
capture and PC based audio-visual processing hardware / software. The interior light
condition of the cube enables a cost-effective yet dramatic video display / audio
solution.

MANR is an Istanbul-based design collective comprised of Turkish and foreign
resident architects and digital artists.

Mirza Vranjakovic + Anil Camci + Neslihan Catak + Reuben de Lautour