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Persistence (of Vision)

Talk by Artists in Residence Nicole Heidtke & Stefan Baumberger, collaboratively working as ~ in the fields

19 May 2011
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Artists collaboration ~ in the fields talked about their working methods and previous art works, as well as their current research as Artists in Residence at the UCL Environment Institute on plastic pollution in the oceans.

Their previous responsive installation ink is a meditation on media developments throughout history and in the present, but also a reflection upon remembering and forgetting. “The shifts from handwriting to the printed book, from material letters
to the after-image in the eye of the beholder and from the projection of the vitreous ‘blue screen’ to the digital illuminated lettering, trace a short history of our
media evolution.” (Dr. Gora Jain, Muthesius Academy of Art and Design, Kiel).

As Artists in Residence at the UCL Environment Institute ~ in the fields are researching a variety of phenomena relating to plastic pollution in the oceans
and ocean gyres. With a series of different art works they reflect upon the “awayness” of plastic garbage in the collective memory – once it is thrown away – and its persistence (as a rarely degrading material) in the oceans and on the beaches. They have travelled to the Shetland Islands to find remote and beautiful beaches – each with a different affinity to plastic garbage. Plastic pollution seems to be merely a statistical topic, not even a scientific one. How can it be approached
with visual arts methods?

~ in the fields: our work emphasizes natural phenomena and condenses poetic moments into inventions of autonomous, cocooned systems. Our visual art practice draws on archival material, optical illusions, environmental topics and ephemeral
artefacts, such as lost forms of cinema.


In 2010 ~ in the fields’ sculptural installation ink was awarded the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) Award for Interdisciplinary Art and Science. Former residencies include the Highland Hospice in Inverness.