New Tendencies

This picture was created by François Morellet by rotating grids at the angles given in the title. The artist defined a method which was then carried out strictly, without subjective interference. Morellet experimented for a lengthy period using graphite pencil on paper, before he arrived at results which were realised on bigger scale. One observer described the visual effect, when looking at the image for a while, as 'like watching the night sky' in a cloudless night.

Pfister's hen is wearing prism's to deviate light. The experiment set out to find if the chicken, like humans, is able to correct an upside down world. It is. However, as a friend asked, is that a good or a bad sign, or can the chicken be considered smarter if it does it more quickly than us humans? Animals were used extensively in experimental research on the physiology of perception. In the literature from the 1950s and 1960s which I have been consulting those animals are always treated as 'things', as soulless non-entities. Yet maybe some animals showed some enthusiasm for the tasks.