The exhibition ‘FIELDS OF IMAGE. GRAPHIC REPRESENTATIONS OF FACTS AND THOUGHT’ is the result of a collaboration between MARCO, Museum of Contemporary Art, Vigo, and the University of Vigo. The BALIZA project, carried out at the Pontevedra Faculty of Fine Arts and implemented at the Campus do Mar - Knowledge in Depth, forms part of the actions funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture under the Sub-programme for Strengthening the Campus of International Excellence. This programme aims to increase internationalisation and the creation of stable structures capable of bringing together academia with regional elements, public administration, civil society and the business world. In this context, the Ministry of Education, together with the Department for Universities, promoted the publication ‘Art as a criterion of excellence’, a document designed specifically to introduce artistic initiatives within the Campus of International Excellence projects. In this context, the BALIZA project aims to design a medium-term action plan for research in the field of Fine Arts: a number of actions have been carried out since 2012, including seminars, workshops, discussion forums and the development of resource and specific tools, and this exhibition project signifies a crucial step forward in the exploration and visibility of the art-science duality.
Demonstrating that art and science are not as different as we might think is one of the objectives of ‘FIELDS OF IMAGE. GRAPHIC REPRESENTATIONS OF FACTS AND THOUGHT’, curated by Alberto Ruiz de Samaniego. The history of Western culture is full of examples that show the links between a system of perception and technical measurement, and the visual image. There are specific research processes in both science and the arts that must be expressed in the form of an image. Based on this idea, this group exhibition includes works developed by the University’s scientific research groups, artists from the School of Fine Arts, and a number of guest artists. Their research processes around the image are all equally presented in an exhibition defined by its versatility.
The title of the exhibition [Fields of Image’, ‘Eidos da imaxe’ in Galician language,] is particularly meaningful if we look at the literal meaning of the term. On the one hand ‘Fields of Image’ refers to the idea of fields and territories —even directions— of work and exploration. On the other hand, it also refers to a philosophical and scientific concept with an extensive tradition in the history of human knowledge: the Greek word εἶδος / Eidos (aspect of reality condensed in a form or concept), used by Plato, Aristotle and Husserl —the father of phenomenology— in the twentieth century.
The project was designed around seven approaches which correspond to the installation of the exhibition at the MARCO: morphography, geography, chronography, anatomography, micrography, macrography and spectrography.
Morphograpy brings together works related to the analysis and creation of forms. These are dynamic configurations of the creative act in both nature and art. Geography encompasses works that deal with measurements and changes of scale, with the study of the coast, reliefs and volumes, with geographical expeditions, with perspective. The Chronography section relates to measurements and registrations of or in time, just as Anatomography refers to measurements and registrations of the body. Micrography —the process of capturing images of objects invisible to optical or electronic instruments like magnifying glasses and microscopes— and Macrography —capturing larger images or graphic records in relation to the selected object— are the focus in two other sections. Finally, Spectrography includes images obtained through the process of analysing the spectrum of frequencies characteristic of wave motion (sound, light or electromagnetic). The spectral decomposition of frequencies can be applied to any concept associated with frequency or wave motions such as colours, musical notes, electromagnetic radio or television waves and even the regular rotation of the earth.
Historical materials and documents, which serve as models and principles of use of the image/sign, have been included in each of the sections along with the works of artists and researchers and examples of contemporary experimental processes.