Blanks
CAPTURING VISUAL TRACKS ACROSS BLANK PAPER, 1996
Angelika Böck (DE)
Eye-tracking technology forms the basis of Blanks, a series of portraits characterised by the figure four. Four people each looked at a square sheet of blank paper, their range of vision restricted to a 40x40 cm section, for a single minute. Their eye movements are recorded in black on a pane of glass.
This process was repeated four times for each portrait, with each pane then placed on top of the others to create a single level. The first time, eye movements are recorded while the subject views the blank paper. The second time, the subject is presented with a recording of the eye movements from the first, and their eye movements recorded as they observe this. Likewise for the third and fourth times.
Thus, the subject and the observer are embodied as one in the piece. The piece recounts a dialogue between the person as the observer and the person as the subject.
Standing directly in front of the composition, all the levels merge and the pieces can be viewed as one image. Only by changing the angle of observation can the viewer distinguish individual layers and the dialogues between the different viewing processes.
BIO
Angelika Böck is a visual artist and interior architect. Her work deals with the phenomena of human perception, and contains elements from both art and research derived from field studies within different cultural settings. Her artwork ranges from eye drawing and video to installation, photography, text and sculpture, and it has been exhibited internationally. It has also been published in art catalogues, scientific journals and books. She currently lives and works in Munich, Germany and Bario, Malaysia.