User:Niek Hilkmann/Project Proposal

Nothing is as vague and as attractive as the past. It is never really present, though it's traces are everywhere. The most appealing bit about it however, is it's tangibility. One can never really encounter what has happened in the flesh, but concrete objects collecting fungi in moist basements can help reconstruct what has happened. They are the stuff culture and history is built upon. Once they were made and used by actual living human beings with thoughts and feelings, but at one point they simply stopped being issued. Even though these objects and the persons who used them are not literally being seen on the street anymore, they still have a very real place within society. Historians and collectors are attracted to the objects and the stories behind them. They are able to project certain feelings and ideas upon them. Sometimes, such ideas lead to very elaborate narrative constructions, which are retold and reshaped over and over again and get new uses within current times. Nowadays, many of these different interpretations can be found on the web and in digital libraries. Each one of these is presented in such a way that it is just as true as the next one. As such, the past appears to be a relative subject outside the reach of truth and the human mind. However, something gets lost within these new narratives and the web constitutes this cultural division. The metaphysical meaning of objects shifts between romantic speculation and sentimental relativism. One question I continually ask myself is what it means when an object becomes redundant or is being reissued. I probably contemplate on this because I wonder what it means to be redundant and reissued myself. At one point in time I will die and leave behind traces that might help to construct a narrative. I wonder if it is possible to get lost in translation in a digital age. This is my main thesis question. To answer it I will look at what kind of historical sources are enforced by the web and how they constitute a form of metaphysical estrangement that differs from a pre-digital one. Certain specified objects such as the dodecaeder, the narwal tooth, John Dee's speculum and the image of the dodo will be taken as an historical example of this shifting of meaning and essence. I will turn my research into something concrete by means of an installation incorporating sound, image, light and animatronics. Objects of the past are orchestrated and manipulated to narrate a false, mutated history in the form of a 10 minute show bearing similarities to the type that can be found in amusement parks. One important factor in this show is the use of animation, for anthropomorphism is the start of any form of romantic misinterpretation. Everything together will tell the story of the struggle between mankind and it's past and future by means of insensitive objects.