PARALLAX LAB

Generazione Critica: How did the project Parallax Lab start?

Parallax Lab: Parallax Lab arose in 2018 from the creative and scientific vision of its predecessor, the Light and Reflection Lab (2016-2018). It all began with the impulse of three physics students who were searching for new perspectives beyond their studies. Although physics is, contrary to common belief, a very creative field of study, it may be described as lacking a broader view on the world. Ethical, aesthetical and social topics are rarely discussed within the studies, even though they should very much be considered in science and generally in any field of research. Physics also tends to convey quite a rigid view on life – a “true” or “false” philosophy, which allows little room for alternative perspectives. One tends to think more about the matter than about oneself. In this sense, the founding of the Light and Reflection Lab was an embarkment on the search for other points of view.

The Light and Reflection Lab was shaped by two projects in which some of us were also active: the Experimental Stage Project [1] and the Open Class Berlin [2]. The lab was inspired by the Open Class to work autonomously and with a flat hierarchy, whilst the Experimental Stage Project demonstrated how to communicate science through a creative medium, and to upcycle the available resources to realize projects.

In 2018, the Technische Universität Berlin supported us and funded us for three years…what seemed like a big step. During that period, the team grew in size, some of us that were working with art joined the lab. Soon we realized that concepts like “chaos” or “abstraction” meant something completely different to us. From there, conversations and discussions started popping up, trying to understand each other and working with the tension in between our “disciplines”. That’s how we came to the concept of PARALLAX, where more than one perspective coexists in a single view.

GC: Collaboration between art and science is clearly stated in your name, could you tell us how you develop the research within the two different areas and where you find the common ground to study, plan and realize your projects?

PL: The term Parallax describes the apparent difference of the position of an object depending on the point of view from which it is seen. In other words, the same thing observed from different points in space appears to be different in itself. In astronomy, the parallax effect is used to measure large distances, such as the distance between the earth and other planets or stars.

The aim of the lab was to find different mediums through which art and science could find a de-form. This exploration began to develop by trying to share and transfer the methodology of research and expression from both disciplines. Considering our different backgrounds, from physics to art, we decided to look into or bridge the differences in methods and thought. We started combining tech with critical input through conversations and experiments, as well as organizing workshops to learn/share technical skills. Alongside practical skills, we constantly try to confront ourselves on specific topics, helping to create a manifold view that melts the boundaries between disciplines.

GC: The core of your practice is collaborating and creating communities through melting together different fields and acknowledgment: how do you deal with these moments of sharing and discussing? Could you tell us more about the workshop that you regularly organize?

PL: In our lab meetings, we create a frame in terms of time and space, but are always open for anyone coming to share or suggest material of any format, which others can give feedback on and discuss. This could be a project idea or a work in progress, which would then be developed over time, in some cases over the course of a semester. Other times, we meet for “content meetings”, for which a text, an article, a film or topic can be suggested by anyone coming to join, so as to open a conversation. During lockdown, we met on Discord’s voice channel where anyone could tune in and participate or even just listen.

Before the pandemic, we would meet and experiment with different materials. We also organized workshops on a regular basis. Of these, there were mainly two types. Some that were more technical, such as learning to use microcontrollers or video cutting or those, where we invited artists whose work we find interesting. For instance, we invited Iona Vreme Moser [3], who led the workshop Pancake-Coil Preparation, where she introduced the basic notions of electro-acoustic transduction to make DIY speakers.

We also held our own workshop Improbots: improvised robots, within the framework of Vorspiel 2019: Transmediale x CTM. The workshop focused on demystifying robots by improvising our own with whatever could be found be in your pockets. It consisted of a theoretical and a practical part.

In the theoretical part, we gave an insight into electronics (e.g. what is an electronic circuit and how are different parts connected) and discussed the role of robots in our daily lives; what are robots and how do we treat them? Can they have personalities or genders? And do the genders we assign to them reflect certain roles in our society? For instance, we critically discussed “household” robots like Siri, whose purpose is to solve problems and assist users in their day-to-day, while using female voices to accompany these apparently “feminine” attributes.

In the practical part, it was important for us to give access to people who have no or little experience with mechatronics. Therefore, we brought some simple parts like motors and batteries. Together with the materials they had with them, the participants were able to build their own robots within a few hours. The idea was not think too much about the process, but to try out what comes to mind in order to shake off any inhibitions towards exploring and building technologies.

GC: Parallax Lab aim to be a multidisciplinary laboratory: the various programs you offered manifest this interest in organizing different typology of events and exhibitions. In 2017 you had your first exhibition Shadow Boundaries, could you describe how was this experience?

Shadow boundaries, which took place in the frame of the 48 Stunden Neukölln Art Festival, was a beautiful experience for us. We received a very positive response from the audience, giving us the confidence to continue with our project and apply for various fundings. The installations presented encompassed the idea of the shadow, which for us represented the loss of an object’s dimensionality, but at the same time was a metaphor for the subconscious, the imperfect, and the indirect. It symbolized an opportunity to reveal the invisible and to understand the untouchable. In physics, all measurements that are performed are indirect; the way we understand our reality is through the “shadows” of the things we measure and through going beyond the limits of our human perception. One of our installations dealt with the latter: we demonstrated the limits of our perception by creating the illusion of a reversed waterfall. The droplets seemed to flow up, and only after touching the water it became clear that they did not.

GC: On Fall 2021 Parallax Lab did a collaboration with Floating University, running the project Soft Encounters. What are the ‘Soft Encounters’ and on which assumption did you started the collaboration with other spaces and organizations active in Berlin?

PL: Soft Encounters was the collectively decided name of our group exhibition at Floating University [4]. The title was pieced together using words written by everyone present on a cut-up pizza box. We wrote down words which seemed fitting for the group and the works exhibited. We then agreed on Soft Encounters which seemed to describe our way of working and collaborating, in which people with different backgrounds meet and learn from each other. Instead of any dominant perspectives being imposed on other group members, we much rather try to exchange in a “soft” manner: keeping an open ear and including different points of view.

For us, collaborating with other projects is cross-pollination, meeting other perspectives, activities or specialisations. Every project similar to ours has its own cosmos of interests, and has gone through its own process of formation, so we can learn a lot through direct exchange.

Meeting at Floating influenced our workflow; it’s a space that lingers between natural and urban, neither in nor outdoor with irregular electricity circuits and regular visits of other species. During our time there, we cooked collectively, worked around the electric glitches and adapted the infrastructure to the place. This gave us an impulse to experiment with sensors that trace things like temperature, moisture, light and wind and from them create an installation in the form of a round playground.
It was also at Floating, earlier this year, that one of us met the team from Generazione Critica!

GC: The Noise Floor performance presented at Transmediale 2020 uses an artificial neural network to create new noises and investigates where these new sounds originate. How does music fit into your research and what kind of results did the performance have?

PL: In 2020 we researched and experimented a lot with sound. Scientifically, we studied the physical properties of sound, e.g. as a pressure wave, and experimented with different microphones and transducers. On the theoretical side, we read and discussed various texts on the subject of sound, such as The art of noise by Luigi Russolo[5]. During this time the project Noise Floor by the artist Moritz Zeisner and the computer scientist Martin Haug was developed. The project consisted of a machine learning algorithm fed with background sounds from public life, in order to simulate “artificial noise”. The resulting composition was then performed live at a sound event in Berlin.

The topic of sound still accompanies us. In our latest exhibition Soft Encounters, we organized a sound event, consisting of an ambient and experimental music listening session and a new format of jam session using binaural microphones, hosted by the collective Eigenklang.

GC: Your practice is often performative but, as in Reflection and Refraction, or Nitinol Solar Motor, it originates installations and objects. How to reconcile the use of different means with a formalization?

PL: Parallax as a space is there to allow encounters and exchange, to offer a regular place and a set of tools to share under the roof of art:science. We are mostly there for the process. Formalisation of works, be it a performance, a poem, an object, a sound work or installation is something that occurs over time, chosen or developed based on experiments, questions, research, conversations and/or interests of the ones bringing them into form.

The Nitinol Solar Motor, for example, was a project by artist Friedrich Weber Goizel and Autonomous Systems student Nishant Joshi. They met through Parallax and developed the 2019 prototype shown in the photo. To better understand their collaboration, we asked Friedrich to tell us more about his experience.

“Our project of the Nitinol Solar Motor started with the fascination for the material Nitinol. In addition, my plan was to build a mechanical “creature” in the style of Theo Jansen. Only with the Sun as drive instead of using the power of the wind. So the outcome of the project was open and that’s how I presented it at the beginning of the semester at Parallax. This is where Nishant came in, who was doing his master’s degree in robotics in Berlin. In the end, we wanted to have an autonomous, at best mobile object. For this, it was necessary that our object could align itself independently in the direction of the sun. Our cooperation worked quite well. We both thought about construction and Nishant found programs to simulate them. Be it mechanics or a program that later became very helpful to simulate different lenses and their effects on light. We got to know each other through this project and since I was already studying robotics at that time, we had a lot of fun exchanging ideas about projects and topics in this direction.”

Nitinol-Solar Motor, Friedrich Goizel and Nishant Joshi © Picture by Moritz Haase

GC: What are the next project you are working on? Would you like to keep on collaborate with different realities in and outside Berlin

PL: We already have some projects planned for next year. Together with the techno-feminist collective sWitches [6], we want to organize workshops about performative approaches to technology and microcontrollers. We will also be involved in project-sci.com [7] to bring our experience of working at the intersection of art and science into science communication. Our first joint project will be an exhibition in Mall Anders [8], where we will exhibit hacked, mall-specific objects in a former retail space in a mall in Berlin Wilmersdorf.

We would also like to further develop our sensor project, which we have already presented in the exhibition “Soft Encounters”. It would be interesting to exhibit the project in other environments.
Parallax is a lab aiming for an open, autonomous work environment in which participants can develop and build their own projects in between disciplines. It stands for a close collaboration between anyone from artistic, scientific, and technological backgrounds with the aim of finding intersections and making alliances. In workshops, practical work and open discussions, science and art are de-formed once and again, breaking down the barriers which seemingly separate these fields. Parallax Lab is run by Clara Roca-Sastre, Emma Sokoll, Charlotte Maurer, Lena Kocutar, Victoria Martínez and Julia Cremers.

[1] https://xstageproject.com
[2] https://www.hybrid-plattform.org/news/detail/open-class-berlin/
[3] https://www.ioanavrememoser.com
[4] https://floating-berlin.org/de/
[5] L’arte dei rumori, Luigi Russolo, Stampa Alternativa, 2009
[6] https://switches.cargo.site
[7] https://project-sci.com
[8] https://mall-anders.berlin

21/12/2021

PARALLAX LAB

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