The Bjerknes Experiment combined science-fiction with the history of The Geophysical Institute in Bergen. By displaying both faked and real historical documents, the project alludes to various supernatural anomalies taking place within the instutute an encompassing geography: strange gravitational and light phenomena, mutations, and weather patterns. Included within the display as a speculation on the origins of these anomoalies is material relating to the history of The Geophysical Institute, and the theories of three generations of Bjerknes scientists inolved in its creation: Carl Anton Bjerknes and the founders of the Bergen School of Meteorology, Vilhelm (1862-1951) and Jacob Bjerknes (1897 - 1975). The fictional scenario was used to question the materiality of institutional knowledge, within the archive and the structures of display that influence our interpretation of information; how material, psychological and spacial boundaries are formed between ‘nature’ and ‘the human’ within the spaces of natural science.
Contents:
- Bjerknes, Vilhelm, (2013) ‘Fields of Force’. Book on Demand Ltd. Originally published as ‘Fields of Force: Supplementary Lectures, Applications to Meteorology’ ; a Course of Lectures in Mathematical Physics, 1905.
- Hovland, Edgar, (2007) ‘In the wind: Department of Geophysics 90 years.’ Bergen: Fagbokfor.
- Blank 16mm film spiral.
- Paillard Bolex 16mm analogue film camera, Made in Switzerland, 1958.
- Fake typed letter to Professor Jacob Bjerknes dated October 1959 from Professor Guro Gjellestad, the first female professor at The Geophysical Institute in Bergen.
- Digital Inkjet prints of Nygårdsparken, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, and Professor Guro Gjellestad - a pioneer in the field of palaeomagnetism.
Installation detail: 16mm negative analogue film projection, 5m 57s, silent.