CEN Colloquium: Introducing 'Scopter', a new way of seeing

Introducing "Scopter": a new way of seeing

In this talk, I will introduce my new art project, Scopter. Scopter aims to develop a new way of seeing, new perspectives, and a new approach to landscape and nature photography as a prerequisite and integral part of the great transformation of our society towards more sustainable economic activity and consumption. With the help of permanent perspective shifts as the basic concept for photographic imagery, the aim is to initiate an ongoing discourse in society with the goal of developing a new attitude toward nature—the largest context of existence known to us (Harald Lesch).

In order to gain a new artistic perspective on nature and landscape, it is essential to understand that it is not necessary to leave our civilization behind in order to discover remote, untouched areas of the planet, remnants, reserves, or pristine nature. Nature is within us; we are part of it. Therefore, my research begins right outside my front door and expands from there. The aim is to capture the aesthetics of the areas where we push nature back or where we allow it for reasons of use (e.g. agriculture and forestry or as local recreation) or where we grant it more freedom outside our use (nature conservation, etc.). Areas on the edge of the usable zones, which I call NoLand, seem to me to be of particular importance. In these somewhat neglected areas, it is possible to see how nature works, even outside the concept of nature conservation.

To provide a clear counterpoint, I asked myself how far we can distance ourselves from nature within specific civilizational niches. To this end, I have photographed specially encapsulated zones—in a submarine, a spaceship, airplanes and cars, a steel mill, and soon a cleaning room in a chip factory among others—essentially as a starting point for my research, in which people can survive and work for a certain period of time, far away from nature.

It is necessary to constantly devise new approaches that examine how we see, perceive, and understand our world, while repeatedly considering how nature itself would see itself. This paradigm shift aims to create new images of the world that help us master the transformation process between adaptation and mitigation in a shared exchange.

Dr. Andreas Pohlmann received his PhD in art history at the University of Bonn. Since 1980, he has been engaged in experimental photographing. In 1994 he met and begun a collaboration with the artist Hermann Josef Hack, founder of the GLOBAL BRAINSTORMING PROJECT. To date, this collaboration has resulted in over 270 actions, interventions, and concepts that engage directly with the public in public spaces.

The GBP follows guiding principles such as: Only art can stop climate change! We need a new aesthetic for the transformation: The aesthetic of global survival! This transformation is primarily a cultural task, not a highly technical one. In the tension between precision and soul, it is not about understanding the tasks, but about grasping the opportunity to reinvent a good future together. Andreas Pohlmann's two major photography projects, “Klimaneuland” (Climate New Land)—panoramic portraits of over 100 researchers in German-speaking countries—and “Scopter” can be classified in this context. He lives and works in Bergheimm near Cologne.

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