Gwyneth Anderson: Qualiascope
November 18, 2014 – December 6, 2014

Opening Reception Friday, November 21 // 6 PM
Closing Performance Saturday, December 6 // 6 PM
Gallery Hours Tues, Weds, Thurs 3-6 PM

In his book of fiction Phi: A Voyage from the Brain to the Soul, neuroscientist Guilio Tononi writes of a “qualiascope”, a hypothetical device that measures integrated information of surrounding spaces and things. For her exhibition, Gwyneth Anderson borrows this device from Tononi in order to research Roman Susan’s space.

“Qualia” are subjective experiences: pain from a stubbed toe, the taste of food, the perception of color. These experiences can only be expressed and interpreted – there are no tools for systematically measuring one’s qualia.

Contained within Roman Susan’s space are phenomena for which there are tools for measuring: temperature, light movement, volume of sounds. Are these more objective, more real, than an individual’s perceptions, due to their quantifiability? Anderson responds to this question by treating the phenomena as subjective experiences.

Qualiascope invites the public to understand how a room feels: to repeatedly watch light move from side to side; to feel limited warmth; to hear sudden conversations; and to absorb, and decay from, water. Each isolated experience, presented in the form of flip books and various animation objects, contains a series of increments much like any calculating tool. The sounds and images, separate yet connected, allow the visitor to control their own rate of “playback”, as well as suggest a different scale of duration: a room’s sense of time.

In this environment, metaphor is as valid a measuring device as a thermometer, and empathy provides objectivity.

*****

Working in a variety of time-oriented media, Gwyneth Anderson has screened and exhibited work in galleries, festivals, and unaffiliated outdoor areas throughout the US and internationally, including with the Sullivan Galleries, Experimental Sound Studio, Woman Made Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center, 6018 NORTH, Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation, and Links Hall in Chicago; the Freies Museum in Berlin; and the XL Art Space in Helsinki. As an artist in residence, she has gestated at the Experimental Sound Studio, Arteles Creative Center (Finland), 8550 OHIO (Ohio), and this winter she will be in residence at Utopiana (Switzerland). As an educator, she teaches hand-made animation to high school students, is an Artist Guide at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and mentors Chicago Public School teachers with media arts integration.

Other works by Anderson can be viewed at gwynethvzanderson.com

For further info:
romansusan.org/qualiascope