Exhibited at:

Spring Fever, Montevideo TBA, Amsterdam (NL), 2006 | The Deprived Eye, VHDG, Leuwaarden (NL), 2007 | Chemical Warfare, ACAF Alexandria Contemporary Art Forum (EG), 2010

Stills from The Deprived Eye part I: Spot and Slit, DVD, 11:25 min

These two projects are based on visual memory research in cats. Spot and Slit is a short film about a 1958 experiment by scientists Torsten Wiesel and David Hubel, wherein spots and slits where projected in front of an anesthetized kitten which had grown up with one eyelid sown shut. The two scientists would open the deprived eye and follow the visual impulses to the part of the cat’s brain where the visual memory was being stored. Wiesel and Hubel often worked late into the night, fuelled by copious amounts of coffee with sugar.

The Deprived Eye part II: Do you see the same blue as me? 2-channel 3D-animation, 5:30 min. Installation views from Spring Fever at Montevideo TBA, Amsterdam. 

Part II: Do you see the same blue as me? makes free associations to an award-winning research project by neuro physician Leon Cooper where he trained a computer network to see like a cat. The 2-channel animation Do you see the same blue as me? imagines the relationship between the network and its creator. Elastic black and white shapes refer to things outside of the digital reality of this computer network. This work suggests that the only way to see the world with fresh eyes would be to disconnect the pathway to our visual memories.

The Deprived Eye part I: Spot and Slit (2005) from Magnus Monfeldt on Vimeo.

The Deprived Eye part II: Do you see the same blue as me? (2006) from Magnus Monfeldt on Vimeo.