uncertainty

Paulo Pereira (2007)

Herwig Turk : uncertainty

The fallibility of scientific procedures is also explored in the video installation “uncertainty”, based in a quote from the Austrian physicist Dr. Manfred Drosg: “ A model can never be a perfect portrayal of reality, and there can never be a part of reality perfectly mirrored by a model”. This statement emphasizes the impossibility of generating the perfect model, as well as the inability of a model to ever fully represent reality. Indeed, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle broadly establishes, that the act of “looking” at an object changes the properties of that object.

In the installation “uncertainty” the camera “looks” and registers the movement of a fluorescein solution set on top of a shaker. The camera is also supported by a similar shaker, set to move at the same speed, in an attempt to reproduce the solution’s exact motion. In a precisely controlled experiment the solution would not move. This, however, is impossible since the movement of both shakers can never be perfectly synchronized.

The structure of the interfolded systems in the installation and the manipulation of the “inertia referentials” challenge the perception of space and velocity, causing a sensation of indisposition or malaise.