Peter Weibel

Observing Observation: Uncertainty

A woman is standing in a white hexagram on the floor. A circle is drawn in the center of the hexagram and around it. At the tips of the star there are three cameras and three screens, showing the woman, directed towards the centre.
Artists
Peter Weibel
Title
Observing Observation: Uncertainty
Year
1973
Medium / Material / Technic
Eclosed-circuit video installation; 3 video cameras on tripods, 3 video monitors on metal frames, floor marking
Size / Duration
diameter 400 cm

The closed-circuit video installation »Beobachtung der Beobachtung: Unbestimmtheit« [Observation of the Observation: Uncertainty] was conceived by Peter Weibel for the exhibition »Trigon 73, Audiovisuelle Botschaften« at Künstlerhaus Graz. It consists of three cameras and three monitors, which are positioned opposite each other in a circle and oriented towards its center. A pentagram is glued to the floor, which results from the positions of the monitors and cameras.

When you enter the closed circuit, you will be filmed and can observe yourself at the same time. However, you cannot see the view of your face and the view from the front, however much you twist and turn. Your body can only be seen fragmentarily. This installation is part of a series of works that deal with problems of cybernetics and quantum physics: the observer cannot observe its own observation. Thus, Peter Weibel points out the limitations of the human apparatus of perception. The observer is a prisoner of perspective.