a perfect circle square and round

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE POMPGEMAAL DEN HELDER 01.05.09 - 15.07.09

A PER FECT

CIRCLE SQUAR E

A ND ROUND

RO HAGERS

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IDEOLOGYMETAPHRASIS - TERRITORIAL INDEX #1 - #4

GETTING RID OF STATIONARITYMONITOR

AD INFINITUMPARALLEL CORNER INTERVAL

MODEL FOR DIALECTIC RECYCLINGGATELESS GATE

THE PERFECT CIRCLE SQUARE AND ROUND

VISUAL CURRICULUMMODEL FOR ABSOLUTE IDENTIFICATION

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INDEPENDENT CONSTRUCTIONSRobert Goené

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DYSTOPISCHE UTOPIERo Hagers

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COLOFON57

INDEPENDENT CONSTRUCTIONSRobert Goené

We are surrounded by objects. Most of them are so common to us, are used or encountered at such a regular basis, that we do not pay much attention to them. Still, with the dominant role of the order of the object that we have cre-ated or at least given a specific use, objects seem to have an indeterminate nature of some kind. Some things come to as a surprise. Without any

IDEOLOGY

IDEOLOGYA void / 2009 / Drawing / Calquepaper / 21 x 30 cm

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IDEOLOGY

Loophole near bunker entranceform of anticipation, we are confronted with things that we where not looking for. This is merely the effect of well-ordered surround-ings that suddenly needs to be reorganized. Without the order, there would be no such thing as a surprise. We are unaware of many aspects of the things that surround us, although these objects are fully functional and cause us no trouble by having properties that we did not notice before.

Detail: Ideology / 2009 / Concrete triangle of pine cones burned by fire / 40 x 40 x 10 cm

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IDEOLOGY

We can, if we really want to, keep on discovering new aspects of the things we take for granted.

Both forms of indeterminacy have some-thing in common. They are both the result of the limitations of our capacity to deal with our sur-roundings in an ordered fashion. We cannot know all objects, all of their functions or all of their aspects and are therefore confronted by the limitations of our capabilities on a daily basis. Still this is granted by our ability to give order. The surprises are given meaning in a split

Map of bunkers situated near the Pompgemaal

Ideology / 2009 / Concrete triangle of pine cones burned by fire / 40 x 40 x 10 cm

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second, the aspects that we did not know about are accepted without any problems. Although we are limited creatures, we can understand each and every step of this. Indeterminacy of objects in this sense mainly characterizes the limita-tions of our cognitive capabilities. We can become aware of these limits with potentially every object, created by ourselves or products of nature. Our tendency to give order reaches it’s limits. That’s it.

IDEOLOGY

Bunker entrance

Molding system / 2009 / Drawing / Squared millimeter paper / 21 x 32 cm

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Our most common approach towards our surroundings is, I would say, the mode of understanding and ordering. The independent status of the world and the objects that it consists of are the result of our limited capacities to understand everything at once. Thing and world are conceptions which are the result of these limitations, but still granted by our understanding. We can put everything we encounter in a certain order, but we cannot do this at once. The under-standing and ordering is never complete, we are

IDEOLOGY

Guantanamo Bay

Fireproof shelter / 2009 / Drawing / 21 x 30 cm

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always prepared for something we did not grasp yet. Thing, as well as world, are commonly asso-ciated with some kind of indeterminacy, which is in common situations the result of our limited understanding. This indeterminacy serves as a limit. Not as something beyond our capaci-ties, but as those things not yet understood. We are in principle able to understand all of this, we simply did not get that far.

This makes the conceptions of thing and world depend on our limited nature. Not as

IDEOLOGY

Bunker steel construction

Ideology / 2009 / Concrete triangle of pine cones burned by fire, trestle, multiplex, HPL / 100 x 100 x 70 cm

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2009IDEOLOGY

CONCRETE TRIANGLE OF PINE CONES BURNED BY FIRE, TRESTLE, MULTIPLEX, HPL 100 X 100 X 100 CM

something which we can fully understand, but as the intrinsical result of our capabilities. Indeterminacy is the result of our understand-ing, while this indeterminacy is never subor-dinated by our understanding. It is the result of our limitations. In the most common way of dealing with things, these limits play a central role, but always at the background. We are rarely confronted with these limits as such, but mostly with our understanding in prog-ress, simply handling the steps we can take.

METAPHRASIS- TERRITORIAL

INDEX #1 - #4

METAPHRASIS - TERRITORIAL INDEX #1 - #4Metaphrasis - territorial index #1 - #4 / 2009 / Cut-out Piezo print, Hahnemühle German Etching paper / 12 x 12 cm

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Surprised at some moments, but always geared towards understanding and order.

Stepping out of this mode of understanding in which everything can find its proper place is not a daily activity. A large array of cultural phenomena are, I would say, aimed to break through this normal way of understanding. There are, however, chief differences between them, making more successful in this aim than others.

METAPHRASIS - TERRITORIAL INDEX #1 - #4

Table of Fortification, from the 1728 ‘’Cyclopaedia’’, Volume 1

Metaphrasis - territorial index #1 / 2009 / Cut-out Piezo print on Hahnemühle German Etching paper / 12 x 12 cm

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In many cases, the limitations of our understanding are targeted directly by showing the possibilities of certain techniques employed. By showing small samples of the possibilities which these chosen techniques have in them, we can get excited about all these suggestions made. This is especially clear with strong tech-nolo-gical oriented forms of expression. The experience of more possible experiences can be compared with the drawing of a small part of an ascending line. We can simply imagine that


Snow crystal


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the line will keep on ascending, if we just keep on drawing. This idea can be reached rather easy with even a small part of a line of infinite length. By applying a number of techniques just like these lines and suggesting what else will follow from this, we can get impressed rather easy. This impression can be achieved by every thing that pushes our perceptual and conceptual apparatus to their maximum by providing large quantities of impressions, which will inevitably give us the idea that there is more, much more.


Crystal - ortoclasio - From the Greek orthos – “right” and kalo – “I cleave” in allusion

to the mineral’s right angle of good cleavage. (www.mindat.org)


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This experience is fully dependent on the possibility of understand each and every aspect. We are merely unable to do this at once. By focussing on this inability, we do nothing else than exposing the possibilities that can be grasped, if only we had the time to do so. The world that is is, however, of the same kind as our common day to day experience in which everything is properly ordered and some things need to be integrated in this order. We are confronted with the idea of more that can be


wolframite gypsum

titanite augite orthoclase


Crystal structures - monoclinic

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integrated. More and more impressions and associations. Simply more.

This kind of phenomena did probably exist in all times, but it might be the case that we are currently confronted with an excessive number of them, especially in popular culture. The strong development of technological means has given rise to new forms of expression, that is clear, but it has also resulted in large amounts of products, which do nothing else than apply-ing the technologies available and simply

GETTING RID OF

STATIONARITY

GETTING RID OF STATIONARITY Separate but equal / 2009 / Drawing / 21 x 16 cm

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The Poincaré disk is a model for hyperbolic geometry in whicha line is represented as an arc of a circle whose ends are perpendicular to the disk's boundary (and diameters are also permitted). Two arcs which do not meet correspond to parallel rays, arcs which meet orthogonally correspond to mer-pendicular lines, and arcs which meet on the boundary are a pair of limits rays.

exposing the possibilities given by them. There is a mature industry providing these tools and many happy customers producing within the given boundaries. The consumers of the prod-ucts of these tools seem to follow this suggestion of more of the same by constantly consuming new products which are only modestly different and, more importantly, embody the same enthusiasm about the world of possibilities.

There is not much difference between this way of producing and consuming cultural

GETTING RID OF STATIONARITYPersuasion architecture / Drawing / Squared millimeter paper / 21 x 32 cm

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phenomena and our daily way of dealing with the world. The economic principle of these forms of expression is clear. The exposition of possibilities offered by techniques ask for the production and consumption of this ’more’. There is a constant enthusiasm for more of the same. A mode of production which keeps itself moving.

In this technology driven production and con-suming, there is not a fundamental difference

GETTING RID OF STATIONARITYThe merging of responsibility and desire / 2009 /

Drawing / 32 x 21 cm

Orthographic projection of 10-cube making the petrie polygon by Peter McMullen

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GETTING RID OF STATIONARITY

with our daily way of dealing with things. The limitations of our understanding play a crucial role, but merely in the background, as a pro- ductive factor. Instead of referring to more of the same, the more interesting cultural phenomena seem to aim at something else. Not referring to something else, which is at the same time prescribed by the work itself, but by presenting a work as something which does not dependent on anything outside itself. This does not mean that we do not need a context

L: Getting Rid of Stationarity / 2009 / Coated multiplex, HPL / 200 x 200 x 5 cm - R: Monitor

From geocentric to heliocentric model of the universe. Willamette Meteorite,

New York Times,1911

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to understand such a work. Of course we do. The independence is a different one. There is an internal complexity, resulting from techni-ques employed, which does not refer on ʻmore to come’.

We are fully aware of the fact that everything can be put under a certain ratio. This is what we do in our daily life. To exploit this way of dealing with things in the sphere of cultural phenomena is making them a part of our daily lives, making them completely harmless. What we are

Detail: Getting Rid of Stationarity / 2009 / Coated multiplex, HPL / 200 x 200 x 5 cm

Social behavior may be controlled by radio stimulation of specific areas of the brain

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The master control for the whole body resides in the brain, and the new meth-odology of implanted electrodes has provided direct access to the centers which regulate most of the body’s activities. The brain also constitutes the material substratum of mental functions, and by exploring its working neurons we have the possibility of investigating experimentally some of the classical problems of mind-brain correlations. In addition to new an-swers, implantation of electrodes has introduced new problems: Is it feasible to induce a robotlike performance in animals and men by pushing the buttons of a cerebral radio stimulator? Could drives, desires, and thoughts be placed under the artificial command of electronics? Can personality be influenced by ESB? Can the mind be physically controlled?


much less aware of is the other side of the same coin, the limitations of our understanding. It is, of course, not an easy thing to focus on. By merely suggesting more possibilities, we simply keep staring at the side we already know so well. Instead of putting everything we encounter in an ordering which can go on forever and which is in a sense independent of us, instead of treating everything we encounter as dependent on these orderings, we can turn things around.

Carefully / 2009 / Drawing / 21 x 15 cm

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Instead of focussing on the possibilities of the techniques, we can focus on their limitations. To make these limitations clear, we should put them up front and follow the directions that they lead us to in an uncompromised way. By taking them very serious and by forgetting ourselves in following the steps dictated by the techniques used.

This might sound exactly like the conception we just dismissed. The difference lies the way the techniques are used. They can be used in a

Social behavior may be controlled by radio stimulation of specific areas of the brain (Jose M. Delgado - Physical Control

of the Mind)

Executive order / 2009 / Drawing / 21 x 32 cm

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GETTING RID OF STATIONARITY 2009

COATED MULTIPLEX, HPL 200 X 200 X 5 CM

way which leaves us with a suggestion of arbi-trariness of the techniques. It could have been replaced by something else. If this seems to e possible, the techniques have merely been explored, they have not been followed in an unconditional way. Only by radically following the steps dictated by the techniques them-selves, without any free consequence-less associations, we can get to a point where the limitations of the techniques employed can become clear.

MONITOR

MONITORThe merging of responsibility and desire #2 / 2009 / Drawing / Calque paper / 30 x 21 cm

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Besides techniques, we also need materials. Only in the combination of the technique with the material, something can be produced. We can treat the techniques as something we can replace with another one. The suggestion of the unlimited applicability of this technique, as we have sketched above, not only treats techniques as arbitrary, it also gives the materials used a rather important role for the result. They are not arbitrary at all: using different materials would have lead to an essentially different product.

MONITOR

The Black Stone is the eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba, the ancient sacred stone

building towards which Muslims pray. Some consider it to be a tektite or a meteorite.

Monitor / 2009 / Coated multiplex, HPL / 22 x 22 x 2 cm

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MONITOR 2009

The other way of dealing with the tech-nique/material distinction – or form/matter if you like – is the treatment of the technique as necessary and the material as arbitrary. By tak-ing some material and using this as the point of departure for following the steps dictated by the techniques applied, we also get to a different end result when we are using different materials, but it should be clear when we compare these results that the techniques and not the materi-als are the essence of the result.

AD INFINITUM

AD INFINITUML: Ad Infinitum #2 / 2009 / Pine cones / 100 x 100 x 20 cmR: Ad Infinitum #1/ 2009 / A0 Poster / 84 x 120 cm

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Fragmentation, arbitrary choices of mate-rials employed, in combination with a very explicit way of employing techniques can show us something. It doesn’t provide an illustration of the things we already know so well, that we are limited beings, subject to our surround-ings, but that we are in fact able to understand these techniques as being limited themselves. Experiencing that we are not only subject to the limits of our understanding and the further reaching possibilities, but can see the limitations

AD INFINITUM

Experiment designed to determine whether humans possess a bio magnetic sense

Ad Infinitum #1/ 2009 / A0 Poster / 84 x 120 cm

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of these techniques and are in fact able to understand them as such. This cannot be achieved by simply providing a condensed version of our everyday experience.

Januar 4, 2010

AD INFINITUM

Phase transitions: the conversion between three states of matter or material:

Gas-Solid-Liquid

Detail: Ad Infinitum #1/ 2009 / A0 Poster / 84 x 120 cm

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AD INFINITUM

Pro-nuclear DNA micro-injection

Detail: Ad Infinitum #2 / 2009 / Pine cones / 100 x 100 x 20 cm

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AD INFINITUM #2 2009

PINE CONES 100 X 100 X 20 CM

PARALLEL CORNER

INTERVAL

PARALLEL CORNER INTERVALDetail: Parallel Corner Interval / 2009 / Coated multiplex, HPL / 130 x 100 x 5 cm

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PARALLEL CORNER INTERVAL

Metastasis - score by Iannis Xenaxis

Echo / 2009 / Drawing / 15 x 17 cm

DYSTOPISCHE UTOPIERo Hagers

De sterke geur van kokos-zonnebrand oliefak-tor 20 lokaliseert de her en der verspreidde zon aanbiddende lichamen op het kust zand van Den Helder. Het zijn de architectuur fragmen-ten in de vorm van half begraven bunkers en andere tekens die herinneren aan de gevechten die hier plaatsvonden in het omringende landschap en impliciet verwijzen naar de vele

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Polytope - score by Iannis Xenakis

Notebook - Multiplication list

lichamen – zonder kokosolie – liggend op het-zelfde strand maar dan gesneuveld in het sper-vuur in dienst van een toen heersende ideologie of oppositie daarvan.

Nu, joggen gespierde mariniers in het duinge- bied rondom mijn tijdelijke woon- en werver- blijf in het Pompgemaal, resoneren helikopters en schietoefeningen zijn onderdeel van het wekelijkse auditieve ruim. Het blijft een vreemd gegeven, simpel gezegd, dat vrijheid bij gratie

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van defensie en buitenlandse politiek bestaat. Veiligheid als preventieve verdediging, heeft tegenwoordig niet meer de vorm van een fort of een Atlantik Wall of scherp bewaakte landsgrenzen maar heeft naar mijn idee – als een implosie – de gestalte aangenomen van preventieve waakzaamheid over de persoonlijk grenzen van de burger. Moeten we als gemeen- schap de definitie van vrijheid misschien herzien of ieder geval bediscussiëren, wanneer de morele ruimte – om goed of fout te doen –


Molten rock: lava

Detail: Parallel Corner Interval / 2009 / Coated multiplex, HPL / 130 x 100 x 5 cm

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PARALLEL CORNER INTERVAL 2009

bij wijze gereguleerd wordt door de toename van veiligheid camera’s in de openbare ruimte en openbaar vervoer? Stel je met deze techni-sche supervisie niet het menselijke oordeelsver- mogen buiten spel? En ondermijn je daarmee niet de mede verantwoordelijkheid en betrok- kenheid voor de gedeelde leefomgeving en medemens wanneer deze verbinding van toe- zicht buiten het persoonlijke om op een indirect, met het gevaar op termijn op een totalitair – Orwelliaans – niveau wordt geplaatst?

MODEL FOR DIALECTIC RECYCLING

MODEL FOR DIALECTIC RECYCLINGStudy for Model for Dialectic Recycling / 2009

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Engeland telt tegenwoordig ruim 4.2 miljoen CCTV Camera’s, met een bevolking rond de 60 miljoen komt dit neer op één camera per 14 inwoners. bron: London Evening Standard

Temidden van het historisch gezien defen-sieve kustgebied van Den Helder en het door prikkeldraad hekwerk omgeven idyllische Pompgemaal; vraag ik mij af of mijn te ontwik-kelen werk zich temidden van deze gedachten en omgeving, verzoenend kan opstellen of


Magnetic fusion energy winding scheme

Studio view of the residency at Pompgemaal Den Helder

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juist de waargenomen dissonanten weergeeft of een uitweg kan bieden. Is het überhaupt mogelijk om tot een verzoening te komen tussen tegenstellingen. En kunnen deze worden opge-heven als een synthese of worden verheven: of reduceer ik hiermee het Andere tot het Zelfde en neutraliseer ik daarmee het potentieel van het krachtveld bestaande uit elkaars tegen-polen. Magnetisme bestaat uitsluitend door een combinatie van een pool en zijn antipool. Vergelijkend zou je dualiteit, het ‘niet-identieke’,


Ouroborus

Study for Model for Dialectic Recycling / 2009

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subject/object, waar/onwaar, lichaam/geest, misschien op eenzelfde wijze kunnen zien; dat deze tegenstellingen nodig zijn om de ervaring van het specifieke mogelijk te kunnen maken.

Het specifieke als het bijzondere wat zich onderscheidt, is wat mij interesseert en het kan zich op iedere mogelijke wijze – onopmerk-zaam als een kameleon – voor mijn neus bevin-den. Wellicht kan de euforie gevonden worden in opmerkzaamheid, welke ik onder andere via


The Ouroboros or Uroborus[1] is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle. The Ouroboros often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end (compare Phoenix). It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extin-guished.

L: Model for Dialectic Recycling / 2009 / Polyurethane, PVC / 400 x 200 x 250 cm - R: Getting Rid of Stationarity

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MODEL FOR DIALECTIC RECYCLING 2009

POLYURETHANE, PVC 400 X 200 X 250 CM

mijn werk wil doorgronden. Opmerkzaamheid als niet vergelijkend denken staat haaks op het, vanuit evolutie ontwikkelde, herkenning geba-seerde waarnemen en leggen van verbanden. Het nadeel van dit zorgvuldig opgebouwde ver-mogensapparaat is dat we daarmee onbewust onze omgeving opdelen in stukjes en daarmee de ervaring in stukken hakken. In de Japanse Zen filosofie gaat men ervan uit dat de kern van het dualisme ligt in de taal; die gevormd van uit het denken, een conceptuele opsplitsing is van

GATELESS GATE

GATELESS GATEGateless Gate / 2009 / Coated multiplex, HPL / 40 x 40 x 2 cm

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de wereld om deze herkenbaar, hanteerbaar en communiceerbaar te maken. Het dualisme over- stijgen of trancenderen zou gerealiseerd kunnen worden door de geest van de logica te door- breken met onder andere de taal zelf. Waarbij de zen-koan, opmerkzaamheid in de vorm van een on-logisch gedicht, een belangrijk medi- tatie object vormt en kan dienen als impuls naar verlichting.

GATELESS GATE

Cut fence repaired

Hole / 2009 / Drawing / 32 x 21 cm

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The perfect circle square and roundit strikes like lightning if you to look for it, you failnow it is hidden behind this gateless gateif you want to see it, look at it directly

Een cirkel kan in een formule gevat worden, maar kan je de omtrek van een perfecte vierkan- te cirkel met je geestesvermogen ook werke- lijk volgen? Bovenstaande ‘koan’ van mijn hand vormt de basis van het werk Gateless Gate.

GATELESS GATE

The electro magnetic spectrum

Study for Gateless Gate / 2009 / Drawing / Calque paper / 30 x 21 cm

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Een installatie met felle lampen en grind waar het op afstand gelijkende hekwerk met prik-keldraad bij nadere beschouwing oplost in een grafisch gedicht. Feitelijk ligt voor het dualisti-sche verbale denken de perceptuele opsplitsing van de wereld in categorieën.

De menselijke waarneming is dus van nature een dualistisch fenomeen. Gateless Gate, Hek zonder hek is ondanks zijn defensieve ver-momming een positieve aansporing om te zien

GATELESS GATE

Four ways of looking at the Crab nebula. Special plates sensitive to particular colors and filters to block out other colors were used.

Detail: Gateless Gate / 2009 / Coated multiplex, HPL / 40 x 40 x 2 cm

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GATELESS GATE 2009

zonder kijken, niet dit of dat maar dit noch dat; een nog behoorlijke onderneming dus voor de boeg!

December 29, 2009

THE PERFECT CIRCLE

SQUARE AND ROUND

THE PERFECT CIRCLE SQUARE AND ROUNDThe Perfect Circle Square and Round / 2009 / A0 poster / 84 x 120 cm

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Enigma rotor scheme

The Perfect Circle Square and Round / 2009 / BW-prints, wood, gravel, lights / 700 x 700 x 230 cm

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Enigma: encryption and decryption machine

Ideology / 2009 / Drawing / Calque paper / 30 x 21 cm

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COLOFON

Met dank aan: Fonds BKVB, werkgroep binnen- land ateliers en Steven van Teeseling voor de artist-in-residence en de bijdrage die deze publicatie mogelijk heeft gemaakt. Daarnaast wil ik het Amsterdams Grafisch Atelier bedanken, met name Erik Luermans voor de uitnodiging woordoor ik binnen het kader van deze publica-tie de genummerde en gesigneerde bijlage ‘Model for Absolute Identification’ heb kunnen

An Enigma machine is a electro-mechanical rotor machine used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. The Navy codebooks were printed in red, water-soluble ink on pink paper so that they could easily be destroyed if they were at risk of being seized by the enemy.

The Perfect Circle Square and Round / 2009 / BW-prints, wood, gravel, lights / 700 x 700 x 230 cm

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THE PERFECT CIRCLE SQUARE AND ROUND 2009

BW-PRINTS, WOOD, GRAVEL, LIGHTS 700 X 700 X 230 CM

CLEARING AWAY 2009

COATED MULTIPLEX, HPL, ALUMINIUM 150 X 200 X 10 CM

Exploiting the Mineral Wealth of a Suppressed Country / 2008 - 2009 / Mdf, nylon tape, transport blankets, coated multiplex, HPL / 160 x 220 x 40 cm

Black Angles / 2006 / 160 x 110 x 50 cm / Photo: Jens Ziehe / installation view: Larger than a House, Smaller than a Building, Cluster, Berlin, GER, 2008

Tunica Pneumatica #1 - #4 / 2007 / Coated multiplex, HPL / ± 180 x 60 x 40 cm each / Installation view:

Kunstsupermarkt, Stadsgalerij Heerlen, NL, 2007

Low Contrast / 2007 / Plexiglass, nylon tape / 230 x 50 x 20 cm / Installation view: Und, Croxhapox,

Gent, BE, 2008

Ars Moriendi / 2007 / Coated multiplex, HPL / 220 x 150 x 110 cm

Unfolded Map / 2005 / Plexiglass, map: linen, paper, ink / 160 x 120 x 50 cm

Empty Erased Drawings / 2007 / Multiplex / ± 100 x 30 x 30 cm each

Fragments / 2006 / Plexiglass, nylon tape / 260 x 70 x 50 cm

MODEL FOR ABSOLUTE IDENTIFICATION

www.rohagers.nl

Model for Absolute Identification / 2009 / Screenprint / Numbered and signed edition of 40

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realiseren. En Christina Hallström voor haar nimmer aflatende assistentie. Robert Goené voor zijn inhoudelijke bijdrage. En tot slot veel dank aan Raf Vancampenhoudt voor het resul-taat en zijn intensieve werkwijze.

Druk: Sint-Joris, Oostakker (BE) / Oplage: 400 exemplarenGrafisch ontwerp: Raf Vancampenhoudt

a perfect circle square and round

Documents

indeterminacy of objects

certain order

new aspects

mode of under standing

limita tions

common approach

drawing calquepaper

cognitive capabilities