{"id":1591,"date":"2015-07-01T21:42:58","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T21:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archee.uqam.ca\/?p=1591"},"modified":"2022-11-23T21:43:12","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T21:43:12","slug":"juillet-2015-logic-of-the-imperceptible-an-immersive-experience-within-matter-a-conversation-with-herman-kolgen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archee.uqam.ca\/juillet-2015-logic-of-the-imperceptible-an-immersive-experience-within-matter-a-conversation-with-herman-kolgen\/","title":{"rendered":"Juillet 2015 – Logic of the Imperceptible: an Immersive Experience within Matter – A Conversation with Herman Kolgen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1. On matter | on visibility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Herman Kolgen,\u00a0Dust<\/em>\u00a0(2010). \u00a9 Herman Kolgen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Herman Kolgen,\u00a0Dust<\/em>\u00a0(2010). \u00a9 Herman Kolgen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In contemporary audiovisual performance and installation scene, in my opinion, there are two tendencies: an\u00a0internal organic line\u00a0in which sound and image are organized in order to outline a narrative perspective and, on the other hand,\u00a0an external organic line,\u00a0in which the materials operate towards abstraction. The two perspectives do not necessarily contradict each other but, rather, tend to link together. Could you speak about this tension on narrative\/abstractive dimension in your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my work compositional abstraction and narrative coexist without friction, they are developed from common elements and then take different paths or directions according to the trajectories which they impart to each function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I conceive of sound and image in the same way: to obtain a single homogeneous material that can be absorbed by the audience on an emotional level, thus bringing the technology used in the background. Sound and image, in this sense, are my dynamic material; they are palpable, have a density, porosity, elasticity of time. Their common feature, in this sense, is that they are two materials that are developed and modified in the same space-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is essential to develop an audiovisual language that is not simply the sum of sound and image, but that is the result of a series of assemblages and internal resounding materials. This temporal trajectory ties them intimately, in order to assign a force impact on the viewer so powerful that it penetrates his perceptual system. Despite inhabiting the body via different channels \u2013 traditionally through sight and hearing \u2013 it is in the display of the senses and emotions of the audience that the sound and image merge and fall apart, like a prism, to touch their perception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The narrative trajectory is more or less determined by those who made up the performance, in this sense it may indeed be regarded as a subliminal dimension: at the level of composition, its degree of impact with the viewer may be designed. The materials are thus used in a way that enables the development of this intrinsic potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That being said, most of my work is one part abstraction and one part storytelling. Their relationship corresponds to some extent to the functioning of our structured thinking that is constantly pushed and supported by irrational thoughts \u2013 or even abstract impulses \u2013 which call the mind. All this cohabitates symbiotically without creating imbalances, but rather it creates a particular ecosystem perfectly balanced. Though something, at first glance, may seem abstract \u2013 like a pulse that you cannot decipher immediately \u2013 this does not mean that there is, inside a hidden meaning, a narrative path that they may develop, or bring out, conversely, decide to leave hidden. The composition is as if something passed through me, then it finds a sense of autonomy beyond the directions that can give my speech at work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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