NERVUS OPTICUS (2012)
Curator: dr hab. Piotr Chojnacki prof. ndzw. UAP
I was born In 1984. My optical nerve is on top.
Nervus Opticus is a deconstruction of the panopticon. It is a report of it’s present condition.
We are living in a visual culture that never happened before. Watching and being watchable becomes a intolerable compulsion. Nervus Opticus is permanently activated by never-ending s(t)imulation.
The hegemony of sight forces formation of another centres of oversight. The amount of voluntary surrendering prisoners, ready and willing to start living permanently in their virtual cell, still grows. In present panopticon the watchtower is now longer needed.
New model of omnisighted society having unlimited access to information, will not beat the watchmen anymore, because it controls itself. The power of seeing went to the hands of the people. The border between the public and the stage has vanished, the difference between watching and watched disappeared.
We voluntary close ourselves in the cells of the panopticon, hoping that the eyes of the other convicted are looking exactly at us. The residents of the panopticon in a socially approved action expose themselves on infinitely public view and prepare their cells for the visual visits of the invisible guests. Transition from visibility to invisibility takes a moment. Invisibility is used to omniseeing.
Everything is visible means that everything is invisible.
Nobody is enslaved because everybody is slave.
There is no watchtower but everybody is watcher.
The watched who are watching
Hegemony of seeing
The compulsion of watching
The complex of being noticed
From the age of sameness, from the age of loneliness, from the age of thoughtlessness –
I salute You.
ŚRÓDMIEJSKIE FORUM KULTURY
Roosevelta 17
opening hours
Mon–Fri: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
additionally: 12-13.05 (Sat-Sun) & 19.05(Sat) 12 p.m. – 6 p.m.
opening: 8.05, 8 p.m.
exhibition will be held: 8-28.05
