VISION

International exhibition, symposium, screening series, net.project,
publications
Budapest Autumn Festival  Mûcsarnok/Kunsthalle Budapest  C3
18 October  17 November 2002


Vision, human vision in particular, the primary focus of our project, is a
historically changing, active, cognitive process. With the cooperation and
collaboration of neuroscientists, psychologists, historians and artists, we
have undertaken the task of establishing a new, interdisciplinary field,
which we hope will prove to be suitable for the establishment of new
perspectives toward the comprehension of vision.


Vision  Image and Perception, exhibition organised as the opening event of
the Budapest Autumn Festival by the C3 Foundation and the
Mûcsarnok/Kunsthalle Budapest in the Mûcsarnok, aims to present the active
process of human vision as approachable through historical, cultural,
technical and neurobiological methods, with the aid of artworks,
demonstration charts and apparatus, as well as the potentials of
interactive multimedia. The exhibition and the accompanying events, among
them the symposium entitled Brain and Image, would like to create a
discoursive space in which the representatives of the various scientific
and artistic branches, the authors and researchers, can become acquainted
with each others? points of view, and can examine the common and divergent
domains in such a way that it be interesting and informative, both for the
recipients and for the viewers.

With respect to the understanding, modelling and description of vision, the
scientific research of the past one-and-a-half to two decades has reached a
point that we must recognise: extremely important experiences are concealed
within those objects and experiments that we have come to denote with the
collective term of ?art?. Similarly, artistic compositions and the
experiences of artists can provide a basis for the evolution of a new
system of perspective for scientific researchers, taken in the strictest
sense of the word. The Visio research group that was formed within the
framework of C3 last year was established in order to create an opportunity
through the investigation of the process of vision for a dialogue between
the various fields of research, and for becoming acquainted with those new
tendencies of examination that are taken note of with a general interest,
beyond the professional approach. In this way, the investigation can be
inspiring for both the artists and the scientific researchers.

In the present case, similarly as with our previous exhibitions achieved
with great success, The Butterfly Effect and Perspective, our aim is to
establish a comprehensive, scientific and technological historical context.
Thus, we have organised a scientific symposium founded upon the
participation of eminent international and Hungarian
professionals  neurologists, neurobiologists, art historians, as well as a
screening series and additional lectures, the publication of printed and
digital materials, and the presentation of such (media) artworks that
reflect upon the research of vision and the sphere of thought of image and
perception.



Principal elements of the presentation organised in all exhibition halls of
the Mûcsarnok/Kunsthalle:

The first, and largest, group of artworks presents the thematic sphere of
vision  image and perception, through the means of contemporary media art
and in accordance with the characteristics of art. We sent out a call for
applications toward the realisation of such new works that are linked to
the theme at hand and would be produced first and foremost through the
application of technical media. Those projects suitable for realisation and
approaching the subject at hand are produced within the framework of the C3
Foundation Lab Grant. The recipient is provided with technical and
operational assistance, as well as the opportunity for consultation with
our scientific colleagues participating in the programme.
The second, the historical section is divided between earlier artworks,
apparatus and documentation. Here, for both the researchers and the
audience, such rarely visible and studiable  original objects and equipment
are rendered accessible, which, with the exception of such infrequent
occasions, are closed to public view. New, until now unpublished, results
and reports relevant to the theme of research are employed and presented in
connection with this Hungarian and international material.
The third part is comprised of demonstration tableaux, prepared for this
occasion, as well as those produced earlier by scientists researching
similar themes, which render viewable those artworks that, due to their
high value, are inaccessible and unlendable, which are important as
illustrations or images demonstrating and assisting in comprehension of the
theme and research.



Participating artists include, among others: Róza El-Hassan, Gábor Gyõrfi,
János Sugár, Zoltán Szegedy-Maszák, Péter Türk, Joachim Fleischer, Miklós
Erdély, Rosa Barba, Aegedius Sadeler, György Jovánovics, Agostino Musi,
Mária Chilf, Ilona Keserü, Dóra Maurer, Jan Saenredam, Hendrik Goltzius,
Gábor Palotai, Gábor Kerekes, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Attila Csörgõ, I. L. Galeta.
Historical material is lent by, among others: the Technical History Museum
- Prague, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Collection of György Gadányi,
Library of the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, the Hungarian Patent Office,
all Budapest.
Accompanying events take place in various locations in Budapest.
FILM-EYE Screening series throughout the period of the exhibition.
EYE, VISION, IMAGE - DOCUMENTATION / DATABASE / PUBLICATIONS
Text anthology/Catalogue/Web development

Responsible for the event series, leader of the Visio research group on the
part of C3: Miklós Peternák;
Assisted by: Nikolett Erõss and József Mélyi, as well as the other members
of the Visio research group;
Scientific preparation work and consultation: Dr. Ilona Kovács, Dr. Gyula
Kovács, Zoltán Vidnyánszky, László Beke;
Web development: Gusztáv Nikázy
http://vision.c3.hu
e-mail: vision@c3.hu

__________________________________________________________________

IMAGE AND THE BRAIN
International Conference on Vision
Mûcsarnok / Kunsthalle Budapest - Budapest Autumn Festival - C3
19-20 October 2002

The Budapest Autumn Festival is one of the major festivals organized
annually in Budapest. It attracts tens of thousands of visitors from inside
and outside of Hungary.
This year, the opening event of the Budapest Autumn Festival is an
exhibition and International Conference, Vision, in the
Mûcsarnok/Kunsthalle, the main exhibition hall for contemporary art in Hungary.
The scientific conference is entitled Image and the Brain, and it will
focus on the following topic:
Visual art is the product of the human brain, and therefore the creation
and appreciation of art depends upon and obeys the general organizational
principles and rules of the brain. Understanding the neural basis of visual
art can help us to answer some of the most challenging questions of human
history: what is art and how did it evolve?
The purpose of the conference is to provide a forum for scientists, artists
and others interested in questions about visual art and its neural basis.

Invited speakers include:

Vilayanur S. Ramachandran (Professor of Neurosciences and Psychology,
University of California, San Diego).
Melvyn A. Goodale (Canada Research Professor in Visual Neuroscience;
University of Western Ontario, London Ontario, Kanada)
Prof. Nicholas Wade (Professor of Visual Psychology, University of Dundee,
Dundee)
Prof. Jean-Pierre Changeux (Collège de France; Institut Pasteur, Paris)
Richard Gregory (Professor of Psychology, Downing College Cambridge)
Prof. Thomas V. Papathomas (Laboratory of Vision Research, Center for
Cognitive Science, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA)
Siegfried Zielinski (Kunsthochschule für Neue Medien, Köln)
Peter Weibel (ZKM, Karlsruhe)
Jaroslav Andel (Art historian, New York)
Prof. Tamás Roska (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest)

Scientific preparation work and consultation: Dr. Ilona Kovács, Dr. Gyula
Kovács, Zoltán Vidnyánszky