Paula Albuquerque is interested in the documentary, recording and aesthetic characteristics of images taken by surveillance cameras. Over the years she has collected a large collection of visual material. This collection of images was the start of her Webcam Research Lab project and resulted in her PhD in Artistic Research in 2016.
Her exhibition BEYOND THE VIOLET END OF THE SPECTRUM – VISUAL DOCUMENTS IN THE AGE OF CCTV AND DRONES is a new project in which Albuquerque presents a follow-up to her PhD research. Her research starts with the assumption that people seem to have that security camera registrations, both digital and analog, make truthful registrations of reality. However, this is not the case. People can manipulate images, the cameras can produce unexpected visual effects, and both do not come from the registered situation.
The exhibition at Bradwolff projects shows the first phase of Albuquerque’s new project with photo and video recording experiments. That the registration techniques are not neutral and always leave traces in the images is an important part of her research: the camera obscura not only produces an inverted light projection, a digital registration using drones shows more than mediated reality.
Paula Albuquerque is an experimental filmmaker and researcher. After her studies at the Sandberg Institute (Visual Arts), she obtained her PhD in Artistic Research from the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (University of Amsterdam). Albuquerque’s work was shown at the Rotterdams International Film Festival, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon) and the Today Art Museum (Beijing). Albuquerque also regularly presents her work during conferences (including NECS and NWO Smart Cultures). She currently teaches at the University of Amsterdam (Master of Artistic Research) and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (Moving Image Department) and gives master classes (including Pratt Institute, New York, Dutch Film and Television Academy, Amsterdam).
During the exhibition, Paula Albuquerque will be present in the gallery every Thursday between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to personally welcome visitors at the presentation of her performative artistic interventions.
You are welcome to stop by!