University of Applied Arts Vienna, Photo © Jorit Aust, 2022

What Presence: Epistemology, Technology, and the Supernatural

Installation

In a darkened room, a gaggle of expectant sitters arrange themselves, jostling for prime position in the inner circle. Last to be seated is a young woman who takes her pre-assigned place at the table left vacant. The murmurs die out, the sitters clasp each other's hands, preparing for a shared experience reliant on each other’s trust. The last gas-lamp fades to black, the young woman casts her eyes downward, shifts once, twice, and then opens her mouth and begins to speak in a voice not quite her own…

Tales of hauntings and apparitions beg the question - what happens at the edge of our understanding, that which we cannot logically explain? Drawing from the histories of spiritualism and the pre and early cinematic image, What Presence contemplates how the supernatural and epistemological entwine and what truth or truths we may be able to conjure from the dark hubbub of the séance room.

Video, film stills: University of Applied Arts Vienna © Anna Sophia-Rußman and Kilian Immervoll, 2022

Supervised by Univ.-Prof. Virgil Widrich;
Supported by Martin Reinhart;

Commission
Univ.-Prof. Mag.art. Dr.phil. Margarete Jahrmann
Sen.Sc. Mag. Liddy Scheffknecht
Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Ernst Strouhal
VAss. Mag. art. Nita Tandon
Univ.-Prof. Virgil Widrich

Helen´s work photos

Fact Box

What Presence: Epistemology, Technology, and the Supernatural