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before it is torn down, some images of what a terraced house last saw. an experiment inspired by optography, attempts in the 19th century to extract photographs from the retina of recently deceased people (never worked, but quite popular in crime novels).
to make oikooptographs, the house was transformed into camerae obscurae of various types. like a vampire before sunset i darkened all windows and then installed pinholes, lenses and concave mirrors.
here are a few samples and, further down, a cross-section through the house grossalbis 23 in zurich.
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five views of the üetliberg. exposed in the camera obscura installed under the roof and pointing uphill (see cross-section below). negatives on baryta paper (40×50 cm).
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rows of houses uphill and downhill from grossalbis 23. negatives on baryta paper (40×50 cm).
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details of houses. made with a camera obscura facing downhill from the first floor. negatives on baryta paper (40×50 cm).
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drawings from the series ‘fragments’ by ute göbbels. oil pastels and felt pen on watercolour paper (10×15 cm). oikooptographs by oliver zenklusen, negatives on photographic paper (10×15 cm).
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left: drawing by ute göbbels on a wall of a camera obscura, from the series ‘fragments”. oil pastels, circa 220×300 cm. right: inside view of the same camera (first floor, pointing downhill) with image projected on the walls.
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top left: illustration of a room-sized camera obscura used for drawing, sometimes (mis?)attributed to athanasius kircher (1645). top right: tower transformed into three camerae obscurae (roger bacon, around 1280).
bottom: cross-section of the house ‘grossalbis 23’ with six camerae obscurae (pinholes, lenses and convex mirrors). the kitchen serves as a laboratory and darkroom, the lower ground floor as an exhibition space. to the left is the üetliberg (uphill), to the right and downhill the city center of zurich (and the lake).
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the experiments in oikooptography were carried out during an artists’ residency organised by quartiernetz friesenberg and made possible by familienheim-genossenschaft zürich, a housing association. for instructive work with camerae obscurae large and small thanks to peter olpe, andrea good, abaleardo morell, ueli alder, athanasius kircher, katarina aerni, guido baselgia, and michaela schuhmacher.
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notes
whether tearing down old houses (instead of renovating them) and building new ones is always a good idea from an environmental point of view or whether this leads to higher population densities (often key arguments for such projects) is contested. see, for example, the series of articles die schweiz auf abriss (and links provided there) in the republik (by philipp albrecht, in german).
technical details on the camerae obscurae: focal lengths of lenses 500-1350 mm, focal length of concave mirrors circa 300 mm. diameter of „pin“holes 1-25 mm, resulting apertures f/1280 – f/32.
suggested soundtrack: henri chopin. maybe pêche de nuit or some of his audiopoems.
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some references
philipp albrecht. 2024. die schweiz auf abriss. republik.
arthur b. evans. 1993. optograms and fiction: photo in a dead man’s eye. science-fiction studies.
david hockney. 2006. secret knowledge – rediscovering the lost techniques of the old masters.
athanasius kircher. 1645. ars magna lucis et umbrae.
peter olpe. 2012. out of focus.
eric renner. 2009. pinhole photography.