The Anatomy of the Now

The now, that unique moment continually scrolling past our eyes, is a subject that has lost its former position in the current art discussion. The focal point has mainly shifted to the layers surrounding the moment. For example to levels of individual interpretations, associations, historical perspectives, social relevancy and political implications.
This exhibition is a call to continue the fundamental research done by conceptual and minimal artists a few decades back and to point out its timeless importance. The research of these foundations, often put aside as being nothing but l'art pour l'art, has an underestimated amount of social relevancy. How does one read, anticipate and react to the moment?
The now has been dissected by five artists who each in a separate space present an installation. The artists will be cutting into the fabric of the moment, each with their own specialisation. The spatial experience, the fleeting of time, and experience itself will be put in question. The Anatomy of the Now is a romantic exhibition stripped down to the core.

participating artists: Jochem van der Spek, Re-p, Edo Paulus, Christopher Musgrave, Frank Mulder
concept: Jan Robert Leegte

location: Arti et Amicitiae, Rokin 112, 1012 LB Amsterdam
8th - 31st of October
opening hours: Tuesday till Sunday, 13.00 - 18.00

Jochem van der Spek

Re-p		8-BIT is a poetic confrontation of a fundamental digital principle with its analogue delays and failures: a visualization and interpretation of the binary number system as demonstrated by 8 fluorescent tubes repeatingly counting all possible values of 8 bit (wich is 1 Byte) from 0 to 255 - or >from 00000000 to 11111111 in binary number format. The analogue and unpredictable behaviour and latency of the tubes transforms this clearly determined and exactly controlled arrangement of digital basic instructions into a sound and light composition enriched by the element randomness.

Edo Paulus	more	Inside-The-Oscillator is a soundinstallation consisting of eight sets of a microphone, a speaker and an aluminium plate. All eight sets are being hung together in one physical space. With each set, the speaker returns an amplified and slightly modified audiosignal from the microphone (most microphones are contactmicrophones attached to aluminium plates). The microphone picks up, through the air and the aluminium plate, the sound of it's corresponding speaker. Thus, a feedback oscillation can occur. This oscillation is mostly defined by the frequencycharacteristics of the aluminium plate and by the physical space in which everything resides. In this physical space everything comes together. Here, the eight feedback oscillations of the eight microphone-speaker-plate sets mix and influence eachother. Here, also, the oscillations are influenced by other factors: Environmental sounds, presence of bodies in the physical space and airmovements which alter the position of the aluminium plates, amongst others.

Christopher Musgrave	more	The power to a television is pulsed on for a split-second, then paused off for just enough time to allow the cathode-ray tube to fade and cool. A blip of audio and video is shown, fragmenting the broadcast narrative. Typically, the moment passes peripherally as the linear sequence is transmitted, but here an interruption occurs, gaping the physical stream of neuro-cognitive electrons and dropping us into the infinite, perplexing and throwing us back into the immediate.

Frank Mulder		Many objects and situations fail to trigger our attention. They sit and wait in the dark. Under certain circumstances, when their presence becomes penetrating enough, they are able to attract the focus of our attention out of the ordinary to the unexpected. Visual selection is a continuous battle of the brain.

link to exhibition floorplan