Autoscopy for dummies
Antonin De Bemels, 2012
Concept and realisation: Antonin De Bemels | Music: Bird to be | Production: Werktank | with the support of the Flemish Authorities
Previously
2017 - STORMOPKOMST, cc Westrand, Dilbeek (Belgium)
2014 - Imal, Brussels (Belgium)
An installation at the crossroads of sculpture, mapping and animation film. Antonin De Bemels transforms a stone sculpture into a living dummy, that tries desperately to find out whether it is human or not. It misses a lot of important body parts, like legs, arms, eyes, mouth,… but wonders if all these human attributes are really necessary to be human. How can an inanimate object become a living thing? The installation shows the existential quest of a nonexistent being, and is at the same time a reflection on our own existential drift.
Autoscopy
Autoscopy was defined by Critchley (1950) as “delusional dislocation of the body image into the visual sphere” and by Lukianowicz (1958) as “a complex psychosensorial hallucinatory perception of one’s own body image projected into the external visual space”. Both these imply that the self remains associated with the physical body and that a duplicate body is seen at a distance.
(Susan Blackmore, Ph.D.)
Dummy
1) a figure representing the human form, used for displaying clothes, in a ventriloquist’s act, as a target, etc.
2) a copy or imitation of an object, often lacking some essential feature of the original
Een installatie op de grens van beeldhouwkunst,mapping en animatiefilm. Een stenen sculptuur wordt door projecties in een levende dummy getransformeerd. De dummy probeert wanhopig uit te zoeken of hij menselijk is of niet: hij mist dan ook een aantal belangrijke lichaamsdelen zoals benen, armen, ogen, mond…. En vraagt zich af of deze menselijke attributen eigenlijk echt wel nodig zijn om mens te zijn? Hoe kan een onbezield object een levend wezen worden? De installatie toont een existentiële zoektocht van een niet bestaand wezen en is tevens een reflectie op onze eigen existentiële drift.
Autoscopy
Autoscopy was defined by Critchley (1950) as “delusional dislocation of the body image into the visual sphere” and by Lukianowicz (1958) as “a complex psychosensorial hallucinatory perception of one’s own body image projected into the external visual space”. Both these imply that the self remains associated with the physical body and that a duplicate body is seen at a distance.
(Susan Blackmore, Ph.D.)
Dummy
1) a figure representing the human form, used for displaying clothes, in a ventriloquist’s act, as a target, etc.
2) a copy or imitation of an object, often lacking some essential feature of the original
