Lose Combo about their project IMMM:
In intermediate mental maps we present the research results on subjective mapping processes that we developed during our stay at ResidenceSEA on Crete.
In her recent drawings Esther is concerned with islands that she is visiting in fact or mentally, while Jörg is exploring the potentials of a time-based cartography with the means of video and sounds that may result in a performance on the Myth of Europe.
Maps usually show intermediate results (of parts) of the changing world, thus these research results are necessarily intermediate, too. Strictly speaking, maps are out-of-date from the very beginning. Immediately spam, so to speak. And spam is an anagram of maps.
The 13 minute video HERAKLION MAP lists approximately 60 places and ways of a research stay on Crete.
The hard cuts between the places and paths seem to be almost concealed due to multiple image intensities and decelerations – in favor of an image flow in which the reading experience of conventional maps materialises: cards not only open up innumerable access possibilities, but also leave all connections almost unbreakable to.
On the soundtrack, which has emerged from the electronic sound processing of a single 5-minute recording of morning sea sounds, the diversity of a decisive cartographic contour: the boundary between water and land, which strictly speaking can not be fixed with any line.
Lose Combo with Jörg & Esther
Antje impressions about IMMM presentation: Yesterday's presentation of Joerg's and Esther's work in progress focused on 4 locations inside the ResidenceSEA space. Upon entering, to the east Esther's drawing diary postcards were outlined. She had created them while at the ResidenceSEA. For 17 years she has made it a habit to draw one every day just like we brush our teeth or eat breakfast. Drawing for Esther is like thinking, it is expressing what she experienced. Going westwards, she had built a low platform out of card board pieces in a geometrical arrangement like tiles on a floor on which she presented her maps in a box. One by one she unfolded them taking us with her on her travels to different islands, including Crete, Cyprus and some more as well as another island that is endangered to disappear by the raising water levels. We all asked about the things we noticed on her maps, tried to recognize places we had been to and started dreaming about islands and places we would love to go to. Going further to the Eastern part of the space Joerg had laid out his geographical maps that he is working on and with. His maps are conceived as a "flat" world with no center and no borders, outlined continents and countries connected only by the oceans. And last but not least, going further north west Joerg had placed just below the windows, which face the sea, the screen that he had made and on which he projected his video compiled of streets and corners, the coast line with the sea, the cars and people that he had encountered while walking across Heraklion. Through acceleration and deceleration he created very strong visuals that together with the sound became a very distinct and wonderful experience. Thus entering the ResidenceSEA from the south, visitors explored all four directions as on a map going to different places and moments. Photos and text: Antje Larsen
