Light-Oriented Ontologies
Laser Sensitive, 2020, Alan Bogana
Light-Oriented Ontologies
Light-Oriented Ontologies will enquire into unique interactions between light and matter on a micro and nano scale. The project will specifically focus on experimental applications of holography, photonic crystals, and UV lithography, as well as experimental forms of volumetric 3D printing with light. Bogana will have a deeper insight into the mechanisms of “volumetric printing” of various types of organic (and biological) entities with light. The project Light-Oriented Ontologies aims to interrogate speculative narratives concerning the threshold between living and inanimate matter as well as animistic belief systems in relation to light.
Envisioned collaborations: EPFL Center for Imaging, Laboratory of Applied Photonics Devices (LAPD), the Optics Laboratory, among others.
Light-Oriented Ontologies — The Beginnings
Dates of the exhibition:
24.3-30.7.2024
EPFL Pavilions – Pavilion A
How did sensitivity to light evolve and shape ancestral living beings on Earth? How can we understand our relationship to light by looking back at the evolutionary roots of this relationship?
The installation Light-Oriented Ontologies – The Beginnings explores these questions in a speculative and imaginative way. Alan Bogana’s work reflects on the earliest roots of vision, sensing and converting light into energy and information. Circadian rhythms emerged through sensitivity to the electromagnetic spectrum and the predictable geophysical environment of day and night. Temporal organisation optimised the possibility to harvest this invaluable source of energy, which is inextricable from the functioning of complex life forms.
The installation is inspired by techniques that the artist became familiar with during his residency, such as the photopolymers used in cutting-edge 3D printing techniques, microfluidics techniques, as well as research on organoids and cell-free synthetic biology.
The installation consists of an ensemble of translucent objects presented on a custom pedestal and a video essay. The objects are direct solidifications of light propagating through photosensitive resin. They are crystallised light beams stemming from the interactions with different types of optical components and spatial movements generated by motors and manual manipulations.
These objects constitute an open ensemble of shapes, ambiguously reminiscent of simple living organisms and organic-looking inorganic structures found in nature.
A driving interest for this research was to imagine the development of the earliest photosensitive cells (soon-to-be photoreceptors) on the earliest living organisms of the planet, as well as fictional developments of living entities born from direct interactions with light.
A speculative video essay complements these objects and include live footages, computer-graphics sequences as well AI-generated footages. This video freely articulates various narratives at the core of this ongoing research.
© the artist and EPFL Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
© the artist and EPFL Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
© the artist and EPFL Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
© the artist and EPFL Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
© the artist and EPFL Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
© the artist and EPFL Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
© the artist and EPFL Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
© the artist and EPFL Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
© ETHS, the artist and EPFL Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
Photo: Julien Gremaud
Crédits projet/exposition
Alan Bogana, Light-Oriented Ontologies – The Beginnings, 2023
Commandée et produite dans le cadre du programme EPFL – CDH Artist in Residence 2023, Enter the Hyper-Scientific.
Commissaire d’exposition et responsable du programme : Giulia Bini
Design et identité graphique : Jakob Kirch (Lamm & Kirch)
En collaboration avec :
EPFL Center for Imaging
Laboratory of Applied Photonics Devices (LAPD)
Optics Laboratory
Alan Bogana
Alan Bogana is a Swiss visual artist based in Geneva. His research focuses on the real and speculative behaviour of light as well as on the emergence of organic shapes and patterns by means of technological processes.
Over the years, Bogana has developed a multiform art practice involving installations, sculptures, time-based media, websites, virtual realities and holograms. His works delve into the mediating roles that technoscience cultures play in our perceptions, in our understanding of reality and in the construction of our notions about nature.